


A collection of incomplete fics

by gwendee



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Fluff, Gen, Humor, It's a mish-mash of a fic, Multi, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, depends really, the usual
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:54:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 38,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24272392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwendee/pseuds/gwendee
Summary: As the title explains: this will be just a collection of some stuff I've decided to never publish as a work.There's a "table of contents" in chapter 1 to hopefully make navigating this easier.
Comments: 241
Kudos: 321





	1. Chapter 1

**Table of Contents (for convenience)**

Chapter 1

> This

Chapter 2

> Working Title: Date
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply] 
> 
> Characters: Karma (POV), Rukiyo (OC), Kabaya (OC), Gakushuu (mention)
> 
> Summary: What almost could have been an intro to a Karushuu High School fic. 

Chapter 3

> Working Title: -
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Karma (POV), Gakushuu, Gakuhou, Nagisa, Itona, 3-E
> 
> Tags (?): Alternate Universe, Demons, Urban Fantasy
> 
> Summary: A chapter that almost made it into the demon fic "Don't follow instructions written in strange books from mysterious bookstores that don't exist". (This particular work wouldn't make sense without prior knowledge from the aforementioned fic.)

Chapter 4

> Working Title: ;)
> 
> [Teen And Up Audiences] [Underage, no other warnings]
> 
> Characters: Karma (POV), Gakushuu, Minor background OCs
> 
> Tags: Post-canon, High School, Enemies to Lovers, "Friends" with Benefits, Jealousy
> 
> Summary: Karma's a little jealous. (No explicit material)

Chapter 5

> Working Title: Prepare for trouble, make it double
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply] 
> 
> Characters: Hakuho Asano (OC, POV), Gakushuu, Gakuho, Karma
> 
> Tags: Post-canon, High School, Outsider Perspective, mild Karushuu
> 
> Summary: Gakushuu’s twin sister enrolls in Kunugigaoka High School (2nd year).

Chapter 6

> Working Title: Huh???
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Gakushuu (POV), Ikeda, Gakuhou, Minor OC
> 
> Tags (?): Alternate Universe, Time Travel
> 
> Summary: I feel like the tags are all you need to know. 

Chapter 7

> Working Title: How to pretend you have no clue what's going on
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Gakushuu (POV), Gakuhou, Koro-sensei
> 
> Tags (?): Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence
> 
> Summary: How to pretend you have no clue that the 3-E homeroom teacher is a giant octopus supercreature capable of destroying the world.

Chapter 8

> Working Title: Karma the Cat
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Gakushuu, Karma, the rest of 3-E
> 
> Tags (?): Animal Transformation, Urban Fantasy, Magical Realism, Karma as a cat
> 
> Summary: The original, longer and unresolved version of [Swish and Flick](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22079479) where Karma gets turned into a cat.

Chapter 9

> Working Title:/ Loop de Loop
> 
> [Teen And Up Audiences] [Some Depictions of Violence] [Major Character Death]
> 
> Characters: Karma (POV), Gakushuu, 3-E, Koro-sensei
> 
> Tags (Trigger Warnings): Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, Time loop, Recurring temporary character deaths, Suicide, Angst
> 
> Summary: Karma and Gakushuu are in a never ending timeloop to save the world. (Koro-sensei keeps blowing up, and they keep trying to stop it.) It takes a while for Karma to figure that out, though.

Chapter 10

> Working Title: Baking Mishaps
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Gakushuu (POV), Gakuhou, Karma (Mention)
> 
> Tags: Post-canon, High School, Baking, Pre-relationship
> 
> Summary: Gakushuu tries his best to bake. 

Chapter 11

> Working Title: I forgot
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Gakushuu (POV), Karma, Nagisa, Kayano, Gakuhou (mention)
> 
> Tags (?): Post-canon, Fluff and Humor, established relationship, slight sexual references
> 
> Summary: The classic "I have amnesia and I forgot we are married" fic

Chapter 12

> Working Title: Hug
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Karma (POV), Gakushuu, Ren, Gakuhou, Nagisa, Minor Characters
> 
> Tags (?): Alternate Universe, High School, Sort-of Established Relationship, OOC
> 
> Summary: What was almost a multichapter High School AU Karushuu that I actually wrote in the early days of me being in this fandom. Gakushuu is sad in this fic might as well be called soft Karushuu moments.

Chapter 13

> Working Title: Regrets
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Gakushuu (POV), Karma, Gakuhou, Minor Characters
> 
> Tags (?): Alternate Universe, Post-canon, High School, Fake dating, Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics
> 
> Summary: If it's any consolation I winced when I typed this out as well

Chapter 14

> Working Title: An assortment of random paragraphs
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Karma, Gakushuu, Gakuhou, Itona, Many minor characters, really
> 
> Summary: Yep, what it says on the tin. Just a bunch of WIPs that I don't think warrant a chapter of their own, so they're dumped together here

Chapter 15

> Working Title: Wordplay
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Karma, Gakushuu, Gakuhou, Nagisa, Ren, 3-E
> 
> Tags (?): Karushuu of course, Alternate Universe, Post-canon, High school, getting together
> 
> Summary: Excerpts that were almost my other Karushuu fic, "Wordplay".

**A little bit of things about this:**

Hey guys! It's Gwen.

Summarily this will be a collection of stuff I've written that, after a while, I've decided to never formally publish as a fic. Everything here will be incomplete (hence why I don't publish it): most likely I'd had writers block, shelved the work for later, and then eventually just lost interest in it. Of course I'll still edit and cut stuff to make it presentable for this purpose and attempt to give a bit of closure (?) And who knows, if I feel the sudden spark of inspiration again, you might see it published as a main fic.

Most of the fics here will be Gakushuu centered. That's because I write a lot of Gakushuu-related things because I love him (but there might be some that deviate from that.)

Why am I doing this? Personally one problem for me is having so so many WIPs at once and not being able to move on from them. This is a way for me to "get it out of my system", I suppose? And I do still want to share some things while probably never going to clean it up.

Well, at the risk of sounding too sappy and cheesy and over-the-top, another reason: i'd like to think that being here for a bit I have made a couple of friends (Hi guys! I love you!). Some of yall are writers and gosh that's tough, I think we all need some solidarity. And I guess this is just me saying, I too have tons of stuff I let go and never complete! I only seem like I marginally know what I'm writing. Half my thoughts don't leave my head, and half of what does don't leave my drafts - or, well, until now. 

Also, everything here will be pretty much something I never plan to pick up ever again. If you want to adapt any of the ideas or something for your own, feel free! Let me know though.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: Date
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply] 
> 
> Characters: Karma (POV), Rukiyo (OC), Kabaya (OC), Gakushuu (mention)
> 
> Tags (?): Post-canon, Fluff and Humor, pre-relationship, just some kids having a conversation
> 
> Summary: What almost could have been an intro to a Karushuu High School fic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we begin.
> 
> This little snippet of fic kickstarts my incomplete works collection! The trio that is Karma, Rukiyo and Kabaya were my original Karma-highschool-friendship trio that dates back to my first ever fic so of course they're the welcoming party. 
> 
> For those who have no idea: Rukiyo and Kabaya are just OCs I made up for the sole purpose of giving Karma friends in Kunugigaoka high school. Rukiyo moved up from Kunugigaoka Middle School, and Kabaya's new.
> 
> (If you read KK, you might find a tiny bit of this fic familiar.)

**Date**

Gakushuu is the most infuriating, conceited, pompous asshole Karma knows and he's even including _himself_ in the list. Karma has never met someone so full of himself, so high up in his stupid throne of ass-kissing and false charisma, so… _so…_

"Idiot!" Karma slams a fist on a table, startling a group of students a few tables away, and they hastily move slightly further. Karma glowers in their direction, then at the customary three table radius that most people give him unless in dire circumstances that were the Examination Period where empty tables were in short supply. Only then it would be a two table radius.

Karma, himself, was ranked 3 on the list. Ranked number 2 was Shiro, Dr Yanagisawa, creator of tentacles and Koro-sensei. 

"Didn't that guy literally try to kill you?" Rukiyo, one of the four people in the school who didn't abide by the Karma radius, chews thoughtfully on sour candy and raises an eyebrow.

"I mean, yeah, but we all knew he was evil," Karma says, "Asano could actually kill someone and people would still trust him. That's what makes him so dangerous."

"I think you're being biased," Rukiyo says, "besides, with that criteria, that would make you last on the list. Since you could be completely innocent and people would think you killed someone anyways."

Hence the zone of inhibition around Karma, attributed to his infamously violent personality that had people tripping over air to get away from him. His whole middle school delinquent years, being in what the media ridiculously dubs as the "assassination classroom", et cetera; all factors, but Karma was a changed man. 

"It's also the butterfly knife you carry around," Rukiyo points out, "you know, the one you like to pull out and play with? It's one of the biggest factors now, really, you scare people. You should get rid of it."

"It's my aesthetic," Karma protests.

"Therein lies the problem," Rukiyo tells him unhelpfully. Karma scowls. 

The other three people in Kunugigaoka High who did not treat Karma like a live wire were his other friend Kabaya, his other, other friend Isoe, and rather regretfully, Gakushuu Asano.

Gakushuu Asano regards Karma's butterfly knife with a distasteful look, then whips out his own and flips it around. He's met with awed looks and cheerful disposition all around, so it's _not_ the butterfly knife, Ruikyo, suck it. 

It doesn't quite make him feel any better to win this argument.

"Maybe you should be less terrifying," Kayaba says cheerfully, "it's your vibe."

"Aesthetic," Rukiyo corrects.

"I don't want to be like _Asano_ ," Karma wrinkles his nose. "He's such a… pansy. So many people are crowding around him all the time and he just cater to all their whims and kiss ass, pretending to be some charming leader with everyone wrapped around his little finger, to be his little minions like some totalitarian dictatorship."

"That's already a contradiction," Kabaya points out, "he can't kiss ass and have them be his minions, that's not how dictatorships work."

"He doesn't pretend to be charming," Rukiyo says, "he _is_ charming. You have an unhealthy obsession with Asano, by the way, are you sure _you're_ not wrapped around his finger?"

How _dare_. Preposterous. "Absolutely not," Karma hisses. 

"Uh huh," Rukiyo says, unconvinced. Kabaya, to his credit, stays silent.

"Besides," Rukiyo says, "we know he's a mean bitch. We just don't care."

Karma blinks, thoughts stuttering to a halt. "Huh? What?" 

"We know he's, you know, the way you described," she makes a vague gesture in the air, "cruel, conniving, whatever you want to call it. We're not blind, you know. It's kind of endearing, if you think about it."

Karma gapes like a dead fish. "Wha- but-"

Rukiyo, either oblivious or uncaring about Karma's imminent death, continues. "We like him anyways. You forget I was from Kunugigaoka Middle, Karma, we don't like Asano because we think he's a saint who descended from the lands of sugar and spice. We stood behind him even though he's a mean bitch, _because_ he's our mean bitch and we trust him as our leader, to keep us safe and headed in the right direction."

"I get it," Kabaya says traitorously.

Rukiyo elaborates, "I wouldn't trust Asano not to cheat at cards if we're playing poker, but if there was a trust fall, I would- okay, no, I wouldn't pick him to catch me in a trust fall because I would pick either of you two _but_ if there was a school wide trust fall where I had to pick one person who would catch everyone else and make sure no one hits the ground despite of any personal bias, I would pick Asano." 

Karma thinks.

"We don't trust him because we think he's too good to betray us," Kabaya says. "We trust him because he's selfish and we're his."

"I know you think all of us 'main campus' people are idiots with blind faith," Rukiyo says, tone light but eyes hard, "we're not stupid, Karma, we're in Kunugigaoka after all; we don't choose our president just because he has a pretty face."

"Of course not," Karma says weakly.

“Besides,” Rukiyo says, leaning forward. “You forget who our old principal was. Of course we would pick the one and only person who stands a chance against him.”

Fair enough. Perhaps Rukiyo and Kabaya are right, Karma thinks, that the school overlooks Asano's cruelty and sharpness; in fact they seem to rather adore his meanness, in a strange way. Once he stops dismissing the gossip floating as mindless chatter and _listens_ , he finds that Asano is a popular topic of discussion and that his demeanor is fawned over rather than avoided.

"It's because they know where his loyalties lie," Kabaya tries to explain to him, "you're a wild card but Asano is like… a… dog." Then he cringes, and then shrugs.

A guard dog, Karma soon realizes, when he finds out that Asano is single-handedly keeping up Kunugigaoka's reputation. Not as studious intelligent nerds, no, the general student population has no problems with keeping up in the national scoreboards all by themselves. But as compared to the similarly prestigious private schools across the country, there are many being mocked and stereotyped by their public school counterparts for being soft "nerds" in a rather Terasaka fashion. Karma himself is considered an outlier in Kunugigaoka and left out of the equation when assessing the school as a whole, but Asano is a vicious leader that puts Kunugigaoka above even the grungiest of public schools that wouldn't bat an eye at Karma's reputation and challenge him.

"Am I less scary than him?!" Karma demands, slamming his hands on the table.

"You've been _suspended_ , Karma," Rukiyo points out, "you skip school, you oversleep, you're a _mess_."

"What she means," Kabaya says, smacking her and patting Karma on the back, "is that you paint a typical picture of a school delinquent. Superficially terrifying but common. Asano is," he makes an aborted hand gesture, and Karma scowls.

"The _best_ ," Rukiyo says.

"Something like that," Kabaya says, "he's put together and he has an exemplary record, he's in the council and does sports and music and can still manage to kick your ass. That's a different level." 

"You're scary in the way that you might try to jump out of an alleyway and mug me on my way home. Asano is scary in the way that he'll sue me until I'm penniless and sell my whole family to slavery."

Karma crosses his arms. "I'm just as smart as he is." 

Rukiyo pats his arm reassuringly. "We know, honey."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is where this idea has ended. RIP, I love you, may you have a better life elsewhere <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: -
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Karma (POV), Gakushuu, Gakuhou, Nagisa, Itona, 3-E
> 
> Tags (?): Alternate Universe, Demons, Urban Fantasy
> 
> Summary: A chapter that almost made it into the demon fic "Don't follow instructions written in strange books from mysterious bookstores that don't exist". (This particular work wouldn't make sense without prior knowledge from the aforementioned fic.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I never expected how hard this would be (in terms of deciding which cringey work to post next) but on the bright side I don't have to do any writing, just cutting and pasting to make it flow without context. 
> 
> This has been one of my more recent fics as of late so I'll post this now. There was actually quite a bit of plot-deviating content that never made it into this particular fic so you might see it appear here. How exciting! Jk

**Demon Fic**

"The truth is..." Karma says, looking awkwardly between his classmates. He doesn't have to turn around to know that Asano is laughing his head off.

"...I'm being... haunted... by a ghost."

"Haunted by a ghost," Terasaka says, "that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"It's true," Karma says weakly. "I'm being haunted by a very, very annoying ghost who thinks it's very funny to make me keep talking to myself to I look like a lunatic!"

Asano laughs harder. Of course nobody hears him. 

"Do something," Karma hisses to thin air. Everybody looks at him oddly.

"Karma," Koro-sensei says gently, "I think maybe you should take a break-" 

"I'm not crazy," Karma protests. "Uh, ghost, do something? Please? Flip a table? i'll make you a super nice bento?"

Very hesitantly, Nagisa reaches out and pats Karma's arm twice. "It's okay," he says, "maybe your ghost is just tired."

No, no! Asano was being an asshole. Yes, maybe Karma should have kept himself more low-key, but this was ridiculous. He was going to get laughed at forever. They had an octopus supercreature for a teacher, they'd believe a ghost.

"I'll tell everyone," Karma hisses, "I'll tell ever-"

Every table in class topples over. 

"What the heck was that?!" Bitch-sensei shrieks. Karasuma-sensei has his gun out. Nobody moves. 

From the other end of the classroom, Asano glares at him coldly. Karma thinks he's in trouble. The students follow his line of sight to see a piece of chalk float and scratch "Fuck You, Karma Akabane" in neat script over the blackboard, each stroke slow and deliberate.

The chalk falls and hits the ground. 

Asano is angry at him, that much Karma knows. He spends a good ten minutes trying to fit his key into the lock of his house, then just gives up and picks it. His room is unnaturally cold, and he buries himself in three blankets and says to his empty ceiling, "I wasn't going to tell anyone." 

His room is silent.

"I'm sorry," Karma says.

Nobody replies him.

He gets bugged about his "ghost" the next during class and even Bitch-sensei abandons her lesson to interrogate him, but Karma can't offer any more than a helpless shrug. He doesn't see head or tail or wing feather of Asano for a whole week, which makes his stomach twist oddly; Karma realizes that even when Asano's not physically present, there's a weight of their contract that settles around Karma like a warm blanket. Now it feels like it's been yanked off his shoulders - he's so used to the presence that the lack of it is horrifyingly empty. Even the tingling in his gut is lacklustre and cold.

"You seem sad, Karma," Nagisa says, settling down next to him. "Is it about the ghost?"

"Something like that," Karma says. "He's mad at me."

"You look listless," Nagisa observes. "What happened?"

"He's ignoring me," Karma says, "when I... threatened to expose him. guess I didn't realize I kind of liked his annoying presence."

"I'd always noticed you staring into blank space, or talking to yourself," Nagisa tells him, "I didn't want to assume. I didn't know it was a ghost," he pauses, "that's how you knew ahout Takaota, and Reaper and Irina," he guesses.

"Yeah," Karma says.

"Naybe if he's mad at you, you should apologize," Nagisa says. 

Karma shoots him a wiry look. "I've tried that, but I can't even find him."

"Well where does he normally go when he's not haunting you?" Nagisa asks. "He surely isn't around you all the time." 

"He goes home, I guess," Karma thinks.

"Like the... afterlife? Heaven or Hell?" Nagisa looks puzzled.

Karma snorts. That is an apt description for the Asano household, he thinks, with two demons living in it. "Hell, yes." 

Bur that brings out a few new... opportunities, which Karma isn't sure he wants to take. Asano senior is a link to his son but Karma thinks he'll actually get killed. 

"Karma?" Nagisa asks.

"Oh," Karma says. "I dont know about you, but there's no way im going to hell."

"...Okay," Nagisa says. "Uh, do let me know if you need any assistance. With your ghost."

"Thanks," Karma says sincerely.

What Karma doesn't expect at all is for Itona to approach him. They aren't even that close, and Itona doesn't seem like a nosy person, but he stands next to Karma during lunch and patiently waits for Karma to say, "what?"

"You have two bentos," Itona says.

"Uh, well," Karma says. "One's for my ghost."

"I didn't know ghosts eat."

Karma frowns. "Think of it like a offering, then."

"What's his favorite food?" Itona asks.

Karma stares suspiciously. Most of his classmates laughed awkwardly and left it alone at any mention of the ghost. Karma knows the table flipping, chalk floating incident still spooked people, especially after Ritsu's scan that determined that Karma did nothing to manipulate the events.

"I don't know," Karma says honestly. He'd never bothered to ask, and now he feels a little bad. Asano just ate whatever Karma made for him.

Itona looks pensive for a moment. Very oddly, he glances left, right, as if anyone was listening in in their empty classroom, and then he leans forward and whispers, "Tamagoyaki."

Karma blinks once, twice. "I'm sorry?"

"It's the first thing he tasted that you made," Itona says. "He likes it."

Karma jumps to his feet. "What the f- how did you-"

"He told me," Itona says, brows furrowed.

What? What? This isn't possible. Huh, what? Asano talked to Itona, did Itona know that he was a demon? But he said ghost, right? Karma felt betrayed. "How-"

Itona yelps. Karma watches him jump a foot into the air and crash into a table. "Ow."

Karma doesn't help him up. He grips his chopsticks harder. "What the hell was that," he hisses. He has a very good guess.

"Your ghost is mad at me now," Itona says. He rubs his head. 

Karma blanches. Asano was listening in? It made sense that he could make himself invisible to Karma too, if he could to others, but why?" 

"Can you see him?" Karma asks.

"No," Itona says. "Can you?"

"Yeah," Karma says. He purses his lips. "Well, not now. Why did he talk to you?"

Itona is on his feet, pushing the tables back into line. He doesn't say anything for a while, chewing on his bottom lip, then, "he talked to me in Shiro's lab."

Karma's eyes widen. 

"He said," Itona hesitates, "well, he just asked me questions, about who I was and what Shiro wanted to do."

Oh. That explained a lot on how Asano got answers. "Does he talk to you otherwise?"

"No," Itona says. "I suspected it was the same ghost, because he talked about you."

Karma waits a beat, then two. The tingling is a low, simmering anger, but it's warmer than whatever silent treatment he'd been getting the past week. "What did he say?"

"He asked me why I called you strong," Itona shifts awkwardly. "He said you were... nice."

Karma feels really, really bad now. Something else stirs in his gut. That's not even Asano this time, it's the guilt. He gets up and heads towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Itona calls.

"Hell," Karma says.

He doesn't have to knock on the door of the principal's office. It creaks open when Karma arrives which, is the worst, he thinks. It's the absolute worst. This is where he dies.

Karma steps in. The door does the courtesy of closing itself. How nice.

The Principal is sitting in his chair, mounds of paperwork abandoned in favor of laughing at him. "Hello, Akabane," he snickers.

"You know why I'm here," Karma says miserably. 

"I do," Asano senior agrees. He drums his fingers against his desk like a smug, smug asshole. Karma scowls at him, then forcibly smoothens out his scowl because this is Gakuhou Asano, demon. 

The Principal's grin grows. Luckily demons couldn't read minds. Wait, was that just for half demons? Shit.

"Can I," Karma shifts awkwardly. "Uh, talk to him?"

"Do you expect me to tie the brat down to a chair so you could have a conversation?" The Principal looks amused. 

"Um," Karma says.

"He's such a wilful child," the Principal sighs theatrically. "He'll get over it in a couple decades." 

Karma winces. "I don't... have a couple decades."

The Principal leans forward, looking predatory. He asks, "do you perhaps enjoy my son's company, Akabane? A demon like himself?" And Karma feels his face heat up. He fidgets a little. 

He sits back on his chair, apparently satisfied with whichever nonverbal answer he got. "Maybe," he says, waving a hand around, "you should recreate the circumstances for your first meeting. I hear that brings the spark back into things."

He was definitely being teased now. Karma wasn't going to comment on that. But their first meeting? He supposes the Principal is referring to his discovery of Asano's, ah, demonhood, but how would that work? He was sure it'd piss Asano off even more, or invite more trouble. "Summoning a demon in the janitor's closet?" Karma murmurs, wondering how that was supposed to work.

The Principal freezes, and his eyes start glowing an ominous crimson. The atmosphere shifts. Shit, shit shit shit shit. 

"That was you?"

Karma's dead. "I'm," he says, jabbing a thumb towards the door, "gonna... go."

"Akabane..."

If Karma thought Asano's demon voice was terrifying, his father has him beat. Half versus full demons, or child versus adult? Whatever, Karma wasn't staying to find out.

Karma probably needs to switch schools, change his identity. He needs to move out of the country. He needs to escape. Karma backs towards the exit and slams into something hard, and whips around and screams.

Oh, it's Asano. 

Oh, it's Asano!

Asano looks at him balefully. The tingling in Karma's stomach is a soft unpleasant bubbling, Karma doesn't know what it means. "I-"

"For your sake," Asano says, and his voice is exasperated and almost affectionate and Karma really, really misses it. "I think you should go."

"I'm going to cook you the best meal ever," Karma promises, then runs for his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might have appeared after Itona joins the class, and this was actually one of the first few scenes I wrote. If you remember the actual fic, Karma was calling Gakushuu "a wind spirit" even before Okinawa - that was actually written into the story after this scene was thought up, and I decided to go with that rather than this. 
> 
> I guess you can tell I often don't write in a linear way? I will write things in advance that happen far off in the story because inspiration hits and if I'm lucky I get to keep them, if not I'll scrap them entirely. I don't think it's a waste though, because it does help set some future expectations and directions. 
> 
> I will admit I made a mistake with the demon fic by not having the ending figured out the way I wanted it to be. I normally know how the fic would end by the time I get to the halfway point which lets me gather up all the loose thread to settle things - but if you remember from the sad sad notes section of the demon fic I was still making stupid last-minute decisions up until the end. I think that's also why I was wholly dissatisfied with it. 
> 
> Oh wells, I don't want to dwell on it longer. Things have to end, after all!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: ;)
> 
> [Teen And Up Audiences] [Underage, no other warnings]
> 
> Characters: Karma (POV), Gakushuu, Minor background OCs
> 
> Tags: Post-canon, High School, Enemies to Lovers, "Friends" with Benefits, Jealousy
> 
> Summary: Karma's a little jealous. (No explicit material)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Another excerpt from "a fic I will never finish", I won't even explain the working title because I think it can be extrapolated from the, ah, tags.
> 
> This was supposed to be a more... ahem, explicit fic BUT this excerpt has been cleaned up, not to worry. (I mean, Karma swears a lot, but nothing below the belt!)  
> The premise was them in their third year of high school (so around 17), somehow getting into an, ahem, friends with benefits situation. This should take place somewhere near the turning point of the relationship, ergo Karma gets jealous and realizes he has emotions.

**;)**

Karma doesn’t get jealous. 

He doesn’t get jealous of the other students clearly vying for Asano’s attention, the girls that push up to him and twirl their hair between their fingers or the boys that stare in the locker rooms, because he knows where Asano goes after school and it’s not to any of them.

Karma doesn’t get jealous, but the strawberry milk carton explodes in his hand.

The people around stares at him in bewilderment. Karma blinks down at himself, and numbly accepts the tissue from Tanaka. In the center of class, Asano’s gaze flickers over for a brief moment, before the exchange student whatever-hell-his-name-was says something else and Asano turns back to him and laughs.

There’s a group of exchange students from another big-shot school in Japan and one of them is something else, and Asano stares at him with stars in his eyes and ignores Karma they brush past in the hallway which, what the heck. Asano doesn’t go back to his house that Thursday or next Monday because he’s busy playing the good student council president and entertaining the exchange students or something stupid like that. 

\--

“He’s definitely flirting with him,” Karma mumbles under his breath. 

“Who with who?” Kabaya looks up, curious.

Rukiyo nudges him. “Those two over there,” she says.

“Asano and Kobayashi?”

“Kobayashi. Stupid name,” Karma mutters. 

“ _Who’s_ supposed to be doing the flirting?” Kabaya squints at them, Asano laughing at something Kobawhatever’s is saying. He has a hand on Asano’s shoulder now.

“Time out,” Rukiyo says. She and Kabaya forcibly drag Karma out of the cafeteria. Karma kicks a chair on the way out and Asano still doesn’t bother glancing over.

That bitch.

\--

“You bitch,” Karma says, when he has finally gotten Asano alone, pressed up against the lockers. 

“The hell is your problem?” Asano snaps back, and shoves Karma off but Karma just slams him back and feels the slightest bit of guilt when the back of Asano’s head hits the metal with a loud clang. He crushes the front of Asano's shirt in his fists and kisses him meanly, and Asano returns just as forcefully.

Then Asano pushes him off and knees him in the gut, fixes his collar and says, “Don’t wait for me. I’m meeting up with the exchange kids.”

Karma fumes. “Stay away from Kobawhatever.”

“You mean Hanta?”

“Oh, so you’re on a first name basis with him now?”

Asano looks delighted. “Are you jealous, Akabane?”

“Fuck you!” Karma snaps. Asano grins and runs off, and Karma narrows his eyes at his retreating back. He’s going to get Asano back for this - he imagines them in private, Asano begging for forgiveness. That's a pretty sight.

\--

Karma doesn’t end up getting that fantasy, because he socks Kobayashi in the jaw in the school courtyard that Wednesday. Asano pulls him back and yells at him, and he looks so pissed and gorgeous and Karma pulls him in by the tie and kisses him in front of half the school population. 

Asano wrenches away, eyes wide and mouth open in shock. Kobayashi is nursing a bruise on his lower jaw. Karma glares at Kobayashi, who takes a step back, and snarls, “don’t touch him.”

Asano’s face is burning red. “I can take care of myself."

Karma glares at him. “Yeah, I know you can, but I don’t have to fucking like it when he puts his hands over you.”

“Don’t swear,” Asano says absently, still in a daze.

“I d-didn’t know you were taken, Gakushuu,” Kobayashi stammers, and puts his hands up in surrender when Karma advances on him.

“It’s Asano to you,” Karma grins at him with sharp teeth, “you don’t call Gakushuu by his first name unless you two are fucking.”

Asano slaps him. Karma grabs his hands and pulls him close and kisses him again.

\--

“The entire school thinks we’re dating!” Asano yells at him much later, more embarrassed than angry. 

“Shut up,” Karma says. 

Asano shuts up. 

\--

Much later, Karma unties Asano’s wrists and winces as Asano rubs the raw skin around his hands. 

“I overreacted, didn’t I,” Karma says quietly.

“Yeah,” Asano scoffs softly. 

Karma turns away. Asano huffs and traces the lines down Karma’s back, presses himself there, and wraps his arms around Karma’s waist. It’s more sensual than sexual and it makes Karma’s heart skip a beat. 

“This isn’t just a friends with benefits thing anymore, is it,” Karma says.

“We weren’t friends,” is what Asano deems as an appropriate reply, “you punched my _friend_ in the face when he hugged me.”

“He was touching your butt!” Karma protests.

“He was not,” Asano says. 

Karma puts his lips against the red marks on Asano’s arms and his mouth against Asano’s neck, and he does apologize to Kobayashi the next day while Asano glares daggers with his arms crossed. Karma gets into trouble with the teachers for punching an exchange student and gets threatened with another suspension, but Asano lets Karma whisper death threats into his skin and pats his hair with something that sounds like “there there, honey bunches,” so it’s all kind of worth it, in Karma's humble unbiased opinion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is it for now! I did clean up another excerpt from this same fic draft so it might appear at some point too.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: Prepare for trouble, make it double
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply] 
> 
> Characters: Hakuho Asano (OC, POV), Gakushuu, Gakuho, Karma
> 
> Tags: Post-canon, High School, Outsider Perspective, mild Karushuu
> 
> Summary: Gakushuu’s twin sister enrolls in Kunugigaoka High School (2nd year).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kjhgjk I tried. I ALMOST wrote this but it... went nowhere. That's why it's here I guess.

**Prepare for trouble, make it double**

Hakuho Asano, sixteen and royally pissed off, steps off the plane and back to Japan with a vengeance. 

“If you wanted to start some international bullshit with some star-wars family dynamics drama, you didn’t have to drag me down with your media shitstorm,” she hisses, “I’m getting pulled into your shit from the other side of the world because you and papa can’t keep your testosterone in your pants long enough to think with your brains.” 

Gakushuu crosses his arms. “Coming back here was a mistake,” he warns. 

“Suffer,” Hakuho snarls. “Take my luggage. Don’t drop anything, it’s worth more than what’s left of your fucking inheritance.”

\--

Hakuho turns heads the moment she steps into her new school. Boys are already tripping over their feet, watching her roll her eyes at them, how typical.

“Scored top three in Phillips Academy all the years I was there,” she says boredly when her homeroom teacher asks her to introduce herself. “Unfortunate circumstances pulled me back to Japan.” Her eyes flick over her new classmates with disinterest and lands at Gakushuu, who’s watching her with an impassive expression.

“And your name?” The teacher prompts politely.

Hakuho’s lips curl. She’s not sure what branding her last name would give her. Gakushuu hadn’t been particularly vocal about his social standing in the school and the association might be unwelcome. Maybe if he had been anything like her, he would be at the top of the food chain; but alas, Gakushuu was an idiot. She just hopes that whatever his reputation at Kunugigaoka High was, he wouldn’t anchor her down with him.

“Hakuho Asano,” she drawls.

And then she finds out it’s worse than she’d imagined, because not only was Gakushuu a popular bitch, he was a popular ikeman goody-two-shoes preppy bitch. She’s not too sure if she’d rather him be a loser instead.

Which, ew.

\--

“Fucking nerd,” Hakuho says.

“It wouldn’t kill you to be a little nicer in public,” Gakushuu says lowly to her.

“Are you even hearing yourself, hypocrite?” Hakuho bares her teeth, “Fake. Have to be the teacher’s pet because your the son of the ex-principal?” She kicks the back of his chair. “Were you like this even when Papa was at the top? You didn’t even need to suck up to anyone then, you just liked-”

“Hakuhou,” Gakushuu says, a drip of exhaustion in his voice. “Please.”

\--

“Was Gakushuu always such a buzzkill?” Hakuho asks, watching her brother grab dinner off the table and then sulk up to his room. “How did you stand him for all those years?”

Gakuhou sighs with the weariness of a hundred old men, “you didn’t try to provoke him again, did you? Please leave your brother alone.”

“He’ll be fine after a tantrum,” Hakuho dismisses, “how’s the job, papa?”

“Going great,” Gakuhou says, “I’m sorry you had to drop out of Philips. I hope it didn’t ruin your future prospects.”

“Top in an elite school in Japan does have a pretty okay ring to it,” Hakuho sighs. “Kunugigaoka’s no Philips but it’d have to do. If only you remained principal for a few more years, you’d have it’s reputation built up to par in no time.”

\--

Hakuho learns that Gakushuu is the second top student in Kunugigaoka (which, now that she's here, she supposes he'll drop to third). Which means that one, everyone else in Kunugiagoka was an idiot; two, the only other student smarter that Gakushuu will be the only interesting one who might stand a chance in giving her a challenge. She’s not optimistic, because whoever that was Gakushuu had been consistently matching him in his grades, which meant that overall he was still barely better than her brother. 

The third thing she learns is that said student, Karma Akabane, is kind of cute, but also an insufferable prat.

Akabane’s gaze flickers to her when he first steps into the classroom and Hakuho matches his look, and she knows she has him right where she wants... up until the point that he blinks at her like she’s the least interesting thing in the room and looks away, which infuriates and intrigues her. But the biggest blow to her ego was when Akabane makes a beeline for her brother, choosing him over her, which, what? What?

“What?” She says aloud, and everyone turns to look at her. (Well, everyone but Akabane.) Gakushuu shoots her an incredulous expression which then turns smug and understanding, and Hakuho glares harder. To make matters worse, Akabane seems intent on disregarding her existence which nobody has ever done, ever. Hakuho’s not sure if she’s supposed to be impressed or pissed off and then she decides, pissed off is the way to go. She doesn’t even really want his attention; it’s just the principle of the matter.

“Something the matter, dear sister?” Gakushuu asks mockingly, when she slams her palms onto his desk just as the last few people vacate the classroom. It’s not beneath her pride to ask Gakushuu for anything and everything he knows about Karma Akabane except that it is, and Gakushuu would lord over that for ages. So Hakuho scoffs and says, “You’re going to the mall after school.”

“Am I?” says Gakushuu.

“Yes,” says Hakuho. “I need a new wardrobe.”

“I don’t want to go shopping with you,” Gakushuu gripes, but when the bell rings at the end of the day he still slings Hakuho’s schoolbag over his shoulder and grumbles as he follows her from store to store. 

\--

“Hey,” Gakushuu nudges her, glancing over his shoulder with an annoyed expression, “think you can make it from here to the carpark in five with all the bags?”

“I’m sorry?” Hakuho stares, “do you expect me to carry all of these-”

The bags are unceremoniously dumped into her hands anyways and she squawks in indignation. She’s too classy to cause a scene so she just fumes with her shopping and wonder if that idiot really abandoned her like that and was he sprinting in the opposite direction? The car is waiting when she shoves all her bags in the boot. Two minutes after Gakushuu slides into the seat next to her, panting like he just ran a marathon, and “are you bleeding?”

“If you really wanted to avoid the terrible media about our disgraced family name,” Gakushuu says, all sharp teeth, “you really shouldn’t have come back to Japan.” And that’s all the say about the matter for the entire ride back. 

\--

The pictures of a very angry man (a parent of an ex-student from Kunugiagoka) assaulting her brother with a glass bottle already made local papers, which led her to the eventual click-swipefest of articles that didn’t quite make international news but made side columns in their city newspapers. Gakuhou was a hard man to find or intimidate but apparently protesters had no qualms about releasing their pent-up anger on his sixteen year old son.

“Haven’t you heard of knocking?” Gakushuu snaps at her when she kicks down his room door, but makes space on the bed when Hakuho knocks him on the side of his head and calls him an idiot.

“I didn’t even need stitches this time,” Gakushuu says almost gloatingly. 

Of course Gakushuu could take care of his fucking self. Hakuho doesn’t worry, but she still sets his name on google alerts. And then disables it because he’s brought up too fucking often to be relevant; who turns assault victims into a meme? Was this world full of idiots?

\--

The Virtuosos were such annoying. Sakakibara kept trying to hit on her for about two weeks up until the point Gakushuu told him to stick it up his ass, which was unnecessary but honestly appreciated. Araki was so quiet despite him being some broadcasting person it kind of unnerved her, Seo was an asshole and not in the nice way, and Koyama was just weird. Why did Gakushuu even hang out with these people? 

If Akabane hung out with them, she theorizes, he too must be messed in the head. 

\--

“Hello,” Hakuho says, “Akabane, right?” Akabane looks at her with a weird expression. He’s the only person she hasn’t spoken a single word to in her class in the two months she’s been at Kunugigaoka and it’s starting to get a little out of hand. 

“Asano,” Akabane greets, “can I help you?”

“I just wanted to say hi,” Hakuho says, “We’ve been in the same class for two months and we’ve never spoken.”

“Huh,” Akabane says, “okay. Hello.”

Hakuho pauses. She’d expected Akabane to pick up the conversation or find something to talk about like literally everyone she has spoken to, but Akabane just stares. She’s starting to feel a little unnerved and Akabane’s face is carefully blank but she just knows he’s laughing at her. 

How would she know what to say? Most people fall over their feet for her and she never initiates conversation. 

There is one thing they both have in common, through. “How’s being in the same class as Gakushuu?”

Akabane blinks. “Shuu?” Wait, what? “Why, did he say anything about me?”

Gakushuu, walking past the pair, just sighs. “Don’t call me Shuu.”

Akabane grins then, absolutely predatory. “Aww, Shuu-”

“NO,” Gakushuu says loudly, and around her her classmates snicker, and wait, what? What was she missing?

\--

“Now that you mention it,” Gakuhou muses, “Akabane hasn’t been around since you came back.”

“Does he come over often?” Hakuho says, brows furrowed.

“Quite,” her father says mischievously, “he and your brother have quite a, uh, unconventional friendship, I would say.”

Gakushuu, storming past them in the living room with his laptop bag and yells, “you two better not be gossiping about me!”

“We have better things to talk about than you, idiot,” Hakuho calls out. Gakushuu flips her off as he slams the door closed, and Gakuhou snickers to himself.

\--

“This is such bullshit,” Hakuho marvels, flipping through the newspaper article spanning several pages detailing every single moment of one Gakushuu Asano. Gakuhou looks mournfully at his morning entertainment snatched out of his hands, but there was no way he was getting it back.

“Is Gakushuu like, a celebrity?” Hakuho says in disbelief.

“A very minor celebrity,” Gakuhou says miserably, deigning to read the back of the cereal box instead, “but yes. Apparently being the only son and student council president of the ex-principal of the school who played host to a genocidal monstrous super-creature really boosts one’s prominence in society. He has more followers than me on twitter.”

“Gakushuu has a twitter?” Hakuho says. 

“And an Instagram,” Gakuhou sighs.

“He’s fucking verified,” Hakuho gasps, scrolling through her phone. “How did I not find out about this sooner?” Gakushuu’s actually active on his social media. Huh.

“Because you couldn’t care less about your brother or whatever he does with his time,” Gakuhou says.

“I don’t,” Hakuho insists, “but when your younger brother is has a little blue check mark next to his crappy username, you would want to know.”

\--

“Oh my god, what is this?!” She thrusts her phone into her father’s face.

“What am I looking at,” Gakuhou squints.

“This,” Hakuhou aggressively jabs her phone screen, “this!”

“Hashtag stupid-things-my-boyfriend-says,” Gakuhou mutters, “yeah, that’s a really popular one-”

“No, boyfriend?!” Hakuhou shrieks, “what?!”

Gakuhou gives her an amazed expression. “How uninvested are you in Gakushuu’s life? Haven’t you been in class A for three months-”

“-I could hear screaming from the bathroom,” Gakushuu says irritably, “honestly, Hakuho, what is your fucking pro-”

“You’re gay?!”

“I’m bisexual,” Gakushuu corrects, wrinkling his nose, “is that what has you in hysterics at 7am in the morning, because-”

“You have a boyfriend?! How come I didn’t know? And you’re verified on social media? You didn’t think this was good information to share with me?!”

“Honestly, I didn’t think it’d take you this long to figure out,” Gakushuu says, “and you’re supposed to be smarter than me? Christ, Hakuho-”

“Oh my god,” Hakuho says, as the realization slams into her, “you’re dating fucking Akabane.”

“Great job,” Gakushuu yawns. “See you later.”

\--

"You!"

Akabane startles. "Hi, Asano."

Hakuho points an accusing finger at him. "You're dating my brother!"

Akabane stares at her like she's an idiot. "You didn't know?"

"Ugh!"

"Stop yelling in the morning," Gakushuu ambles into class, two cups of coffee and a packet of strawberry milk in his hands. Hakuho snatches a cup, takes a sip, makes a face, and then swaps it out with the other.

"I think you need more sugar in your life," Hakuho says, wrinkling her nose. "Maybe if you consumed more sugar, you'd be less miserable."  


"Amen to that," Karma says, raising his strawberry milk like a beer. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Too many WIPs I'll never finish, sigh


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: Huh???
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Gakushuu (POV), Ikeda, Gakuhou, Minor OC
> 
> Tags (?): Alternate Universe, Time Travel
> 
> Summary: I feel like the tags are all you need to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen, I was obsessed with time-travel okay? I still am. This is from a super early draft that I will never finish. I have way too many almost-ideas similar to this one, and none of them have made the cut. Enjoy!

**What??**

The first, rather obvious clue that something was wrong, (after embarrassingly falling head-first into a pit and briefly blacking out,) is that the hand that reached in to pull him out belonged to his father’s favorite long-dead student Rikuto Ikeda.

\--

Gakushuu picks himself back up and dusts his pants, and scrapes the rest of his dignity from the floor to face the crowd, except that the group of idiots who had originally pushed him in were no longer there, and facing him instead was a very disgruntled and sorrowful looking Ikeda.

“I got,” said Ikeda, “pushed in that pit too. Uh, are you alright?”

Gakushuu thinks he can be forgiven for staring. This is obviously a fever dream and Gakushuu is clearly still unconscious. Those idiots are probably surrounding said pit and figuring out how to bury him.

Whatever. Might as well make the best of it.

“Where are they?” Gakushuu asks.

To which Ikeda says, “what?”

“The ones that pushed you in,” Gakushuu lies. “Might be the same ones that got me, I didn’t see them.”

“They were hanging by the park entrance,” Ikeda says. 

\--

There’s a group of teenagers lounging by the water fountain and they sneer at Ikeda as they approach. 

“Hey loser,” says Mean Guy One to Ikeda, “didn’t know you could make friends.”

“Hey,” says Mean Guy Two to Gakushuu, “what are you doing hanging out with that weirdo?”

Gakushuu gives them the post-Ikeda Asano evil grin. Five minutes later Ikeda is suitably terrified and cowering on the other side of the fountain, watching in horrified curiosity as Gakushuu rifles through the bag of Mean Guy Six.

Gakushuu pulls something out. “What the fuck is this?”

“That’s my phone!” Mean Guy Six yells. 

Painfully obvious clue number two that something was wrong: Gakushuu was holding a flip phone in his hands.

(Not that he was being discriminatory or anything. People probably still own flip phones. Not everyone can afford smartphones. It’s just… well… less commonplace.)

He makes deliberate eye contact as he snaps the phone in two. Mean Guy Six makes a noise hilariously resembling a cry. Gakushuu scoffs, and empties the contents of the bag of Mean Guy Five on the ground, and steps on some things just because. Everyone makes pained noises as more flip phone screens shatter under Gakushuu’s heel. 

Clue three: the newspaper dated twelve odd years ago.

“Dude!” Mean Guy Four sobs, “we’re sorry!”

“Ikeda, we won’t bother you again,” Mean Guy Three grovels, “hey man, we’re really sorry. We’ll pay you back for the stuff we broke. Please get your friend to back off.”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. He grabs the newspaper off the ground and turns around, and Ikeda follows him from a safe distance of five feet behind as Gakushuu storms back to the pit.

“They weren't the ones that pushed you in, were they?” Ikeda says.

“Nope,” Gakushuu tells him. He squints at the pit. Maybe if he goes in and climbs out again he’ll see ~~his friends~~ the idiots from his time instead of whatever concussion migraine hallucination he’s having right now. 

“Well, I have to say thanks, although you didn’t have to beat them up so badly- what are you doing?!”

“Hm?” Gakushuu says, one leg in the pit. “Testing something out.” He settles in comfortably, folds his arms over his chest, and closes his eyes. Opens them to see Ikeda’s worried face silhouetted against the sunlight.

“What year is it?” Gakushuu asks him.

Ikeda scrunches up his nose and tells him.

Gakushuu thinks. He looks at the pieces of a flip phone in one hand, and the newspaper in another. “Can I borrow your phone?”

The phone Ikeda hands him nervously is also a flip phone. Gakushuu frowns consideringly at it, then calls the police. A very official sounding man answers it, and Gakushuu asks, “what year is it?”

There’s a pause on the line. The police officer tells him, then says, “it’s illegal to prank call the police, you know.”

“Whatever,” Gakushuu says, and hangs up. He hands Ikeda back his phone, climbs out of the pit, then takes a deep breath and front-flips into it.

There’s a scream. Gakushuu briefly blacks out for a second, then opens his eyes to see that once again, disappointingly, the scream has come from Ikeda. He scowls, rubs his head, then sees that his finger is coated in red. “I think you need to take me to the hospital,” he tells Ikeda.

Ikeda screams again.

\--

Tokyo University Hospital looks surprisingly outdated. 

Discreetly he pulls out his phone from his pocket as they wait in line, and it blinks “no battery” at him, but it had been at half when he fell in. He’s not sure if it’s the whole time-travel thing, the universe saying “fuck you”, or just the unpredictability of an iphone battery life. Maybe all three?

“What’s that?” Ikeda says, then shrinks back when Gakushuu gives him the Asano glare. 

“I taped a glass brick to a metal brick,” Gakushuu tells him. He puts his phone back in his pocket.

“You’re really weird,” Ikeda says quietly. “Thanks again for, uhm, beating those guys up for me, but you didn’t have to. And not breaking my phone in two.”

“How long has that pit been in the park?” Gakushuu asks. He’s never going out with the Virtuosos (plus Karma) again, causing him all this fucking trouble with time-travel holes in the ground. He shouldn’t alter the past because he has no clue what repercussions there were, but he’d already beat up those assholes harassing Ikeda and for all he knows that could have been the turning point where Ikeda chooses to not jump off that bridge, which… might not be a bad thing, in any case. Maybe this means Gakushuu would get to have a normal childhood with a normal dad.

“I actually don’t know,” Ikeda muses, “I don’t remember seeing it before today, though. Kind of weird that someone dug a large hole near the pavement.” 

Fucking hell. Ikeda goes to say something to the reception as they’re called up, then comes back looking rather put out and says, “you don’t happen to have your identification with you, do you?”

Oh fuck.

“Bye,” says Gakushuu. He heads to the exit.

“You’re still bleeding!” Ikeda yells. He trips over someone’s wheelchair. 

It’s not so bad, Gakushuu thinks. The red in his hair gives him some kind of rugged badass look, and the blood flowing down the side of his head accentuates his cheekbones and jawline, even if it stings a little.

Either real-life him is still unconscious with a bleeding gash on his forehead, or he really has time traveled and five idiots are frantically digging through a shallow pit trying to find out where he disappeared to. Heh.

“If you really don’t want to go to a hospital,” Ikeda says shiftily, bounding up to Gakushuu’s side, “I know someone who can help. It’s the least I can do.”

Good little boy Ikeda has some bad friends who know a thing or two about avoiding government services and professional medical care? Looks like his dad didn’t know everything about his favorite student after all-

“-I’ll call my teacher, he’s great, you’ll like him. Hey, you kinda look a little like him, now that I think about it.”

Wait what? Oh no, oh fuck.

Gakushuu manages to sprint as far as across the parking lot and then he’s roughly tackled to the ground. If he didn’t have a concussion before this, he’d certainly have one now. 

“Stop running away!” Ikeda says, “aw man, did I hit you too hard? I’m so sorry, you sure you don’t want to go back to the hospital?”

Gakushuu squints at him. “I forgot you played basketball.”

“Yeah, I do- wait, how do you know-”

Gakushuu opens his mouth, but his head swims. He resigns to his fate. “Just call your teacher.”

Ikeda sits on him for the entirety of the time and awkwardly waves away concerned passers-by. It’s a lot harder to dismiss medical professionals when he’s staining Ikeda’s white shirt red but Gakushuu brutally re-educates someone on the art of minding their own damn business and everyone gives them a wide berth after that. The look on Ikeda’s face says he’s considering booking it there and then, but whatever upstanding moral code his father was capable of intilling into his students left it’s mark and Ikeda warily stubbornly stays.

When a familiar license plate pulls into the parking lot, Gakushuu moves his forehead from Ikeda’s shoulder to the sidewalk, and lets out a long drawn-out groan. Maybe if he makes a break for it while they’re distracted he can make it to the park pit and hopefully wake out of this nightmare.

“Hello Asano-sensei, thanks for answering my call- oh, the blood’s not mine, it actually belongs to this guy, uhm.”

There’s an expectant pause, in which Gakushuu supposes it means they're waiting for him to offer his name. He does not.

“Uh, okay. He helped me with a, uh, problem I was having. And he… fell into a giant hole? But he wouldn’t go to the hospital.”

Gee, Ikeda sure was brushing up on Gakushuu’s brilliant traits. He resolutely keeps his eyes closed and forehead planted to the ground. Maybe the shadow looming over him will go away.

“Hey, kid, are you alright?” His father’s very uncharacteristically worried voice asks. He sounds exactly the same. Well, almost the same, it didn’t quite sound as cold and condescending the last time Gakushuu remembered. 

How funny, Gakushuu definitely didn’t have a traumatic childhood or anything like that. He totally wasn’t suffering from parental neglect or touch starvation or anything like that.

Nope.

“Sensei, I’ll hold him,” Ikeda says. That sentence makes no sense without visual cues until Ikeda says again, “hey Ga-ku-shuu!” And a toddler babbles in the background.

Could this day get any worse?

“Hi,” little-Gakushuu says. Gakushuu doesn’t want to brag but he sounds adorable. How old is he? Four? 

“Kid?” His father asks again. Gakushuu considers his options, thinks about the possibility of headbutting his father and then running to the park, winces as more pain swims in his head, then reconsiders his options agan. Then cuts his losses, sighs, and looks up.

Violet eyes and blonde hair weren’t exactly the world’s rarest combination, but the similarity between him and his father is ever more apparent when they’re together and Ikeda is frantically looking between them now with his mouth comically open. 

Little Gakushuu squirms in Ikeda’s lap with wide-eyed curiosity..

“I don’t think the hospital parking lot is the best place to have this conversation,” Gakushuu tells them.

\--

“Hi Jin,” Gakushuu greets, when he gets into the car. The driver, Jin, blinks at him. Ikeda shrugs back as he clambers into the passenger seat. Gakuhou deigns to sit at the back and smile suspiciously at Gakushuu while holding the toddler version in his lap with a protectiveness that’s oddly hilarious.

Little Gakushuu blabbers something and then sticks his thumb in his mouth.

Gakushuu prepares himself. He turns to Gakuhou, stares with the post-Ikeda Asano Stare until even Gakuhou looks uncomfortable, then says, “I’m your son from twelve years in the future.” 

\--

“My name is Gakushuu Asano and I’m sixteen.” He recites all his personal particulars, his address and phone number, and then passes his ID around. He keeps his blank expression and watches everyone dissolve into hysterics.

After Ikeda stops screaming (again) and the car grows silent, Ikeda says, “you didn’t really glue a glass brick to a metal brick, did you?”

Gakushuu glares at him. “That was my phone.”

“Oh,” Ikeda says, vibrating in excitement. “Can I see it again?”

Gakushuu glares, harder. Ikeda stops vibrating.

“Wait,” Gakuhou says. “How would I know if you’re telling the truth?”

“Why would I lie?” Gakushuu says, exasperated. “What, you want some DNA? Scrape it off my forehead.”

Gakuhou frowns at him. Ikeda says, “no offense, but you’re not how I pictured Gakushuu to turn out like.”

Gakushuu blinks slowly at him. “Why?” He drawls.

Ikeda stays silent then. 

Gakushuu’s a little pissed now. How dare he insinuate that Gakushuu is not good enough to be his father’s son. Was he not nice enough? Magnanimous enough? Maybe it was when be broke the arms and phones of six teenagers in a park, or when he made a nurse cry in the hospital parking lot. If Ikeda thought he could do better at being Gakuhou’s son than maybe he shouldn’t have fucking died.

Gakushuu scowls. “I don’t give a fuck about your expectations. I got pushed into a giant hole by my idiots for friends and then saw you.”

“Fuck!” Little Gakushuu echoes happily.

Gakuhou looks scandalized. “Stop that,” he says, but Gakushuu had grown too old to still be terrified of his father, and this version of the elder Asano had nothing over him.

Jin clears his throat a little awkwardly. “Should I drive us home?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I just??? Need Gakushuu and Ikeda bonding. I need it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: How to pretend you have no clue what's going on
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Gakushuu (POV), Gakuhou, Koro-sensei, 
> 
> Tags (?): Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence
> 
> Summary: How to pretend you have no clue that the 3-E homeroom teacher is a giant octopus supercreature capable of destroying the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, more fics I will never write!

**A handy guide by Gakushuu Asano**

Gakushuu’s not stupid, by any means. He knows how to dig shit up (for any nefarious purposes or just out of curiosity), move things (and order people) around, and get stuff done. He’s efficient. 

He’d done his fair share of sneaking around as a kid and Gakushuu would say he’s gotten pretty damn good at it, especially in his house where almost nothing escapes the principal’s attention. Said man is acting increasingly shady and there’s a couple extra million in the bank account where it, if Gakushuu checked the books right, shouldn’t be. And he’s pretty sure he saw the Japanese military going up the hill where the 3-E classroom sits, which, what the fuck?

So yeah, Gakushuu’s going to get to the bottom of this. 

\--

Two intensive days of planning and one trip to the supermarket later, Gakushuu’s ready to enact his plan. He has his father’s fucking weird day schedule memorized to the dot and times his appearance just right, dramatically swinging his room door open and crashing into his father just as the man is on his way to his morning jog at 3 fucking am in the goddamn morning.

Gakuhou startles, “what-”

Gakushuu shoves him aside, and stumbles to the bathroom across the hall, and forces himself to dry-heave up yesterday’s dinner. Maybe he should have eaten a little more because vomiting up 10% food and 90% stomach lining is a pretty painful process that has him in genuine pain, but the burn in his chest and throat is almost worth the aghast look on his father’s face.

“You’re a mess,” Gakuhou says.

“Am I hallucinating or is that worry in your voice?” Gakushuu croaks.

That is worry in his voice. Gakuhou abandons his morning run, which is equivalent to a normal parent parading a large billboard sign with their child’s baby pictures and large Microsoft Word Art text screaming “I LOVE MY KID”, in favor of dagging Gakushuu to bed and making sure he downs 7 out of 8 glasses of his recommended daily water intake.

“I’m going to throw up again,” Gakushuu says, and it’s not the vomit-inducing pills this time.

“Don’t you dare,” Gakuhou says.

“That’s not for you to decide,” Gakushuu snarks back. He runs to the bathroom and throws up 100% water, and Gakuhou  ~~ carries ~~ drags him back to bed again. 

“If you come to school today I’ll quarantine you in my office and make you eat medicine from the floor,” Gakuhou says fondly, and ruffles Gakushuu’s hair on the way out. It falls a few affection points short of Gakuhou saying “Gakushuu is the best son ever” into the school loudspeakers, so Gakushuu doesn’t bite his father’s hand off. He waits ten minutes after the car leaves the gates, mentally checks the completion of stage one off his mental plan, and then heads straight for 3-E classroom on the hill behind Kunugigaoka Middle School.

\--

It’s still ass-o-clock in the morning, which means perfect time for Gakushuu to sneak around. He heads to the makeshift staff room and finds out that the 3-E teachers are fucking weird. There’s a desk that seems barely lived in and tidied with a military neatness that’s scarily minimalist, and all the drawers with locks are unfortunately utilized. The only thing suspicious is a dossier that’s so heavily redacted Gakushuu has no clue what it’s talking about, but he snaps pictures of it anyways.

The desk across it has a stack of language papers, and what seems to be a small collection of makeup products and a mini vanity mirror. Gakushuu takes a picture of the setup too, feeling a little ridiculous. The drawer is unlocked, so he opens it.

Closes it. Opens it again.

Nope, that’s definitely a gun in there.

What the fuck?

Gakushuu gingerly picks it up and examines it. It’s marked, very clearly indicating property of the Japanese Government, which, what the fuck. He checks the magazine and it’s not actual bullets, thank fucking god, but what seems to be rubber BB gun pellets in lieu of any actual ammo.

Is this 3-E’s big secret? They were playing cops and robbers in class? Why modify an actual pistol to hold BB gun pellets instead of using an actual BB gun? Just to be safe, he keeps a pellet.

The third desk has an alarming array of worksheets that spills onto desks four, five and six, as well as parts of the floor. Gakushuu’s fingers itches to pick it up but he’s not stupid, he can’t disrupt the, ah, organized chaos and leave evidence of his presence. There’s a diabetic range of snacks and sweets on the table and a calendar counting down to their graduation day next year, the birthdays of 3-E students are circled in red pen as with some other unlabelled dates that Gakushuu assumes are personal events, but nothing else of note. 

The real kicker is the photo frame on the desk, which seems to be a class photo of some sorts. Where Gakushuu assumes a teacher would pose, instead stands a giant yellow octopus with a creepy wide set smile on its face, wearing a black gown and a stupid little hat.

What the actual, genuine fuck?

3-E’s secret was they had a teacher… really into cosplay?

Likes to play with very realistic BB-guns? 

“Ah, Karasuma,” says a voice from the corridor as the noises of someone approaching echo ominously, “you’re here early.”

Gakushuu tries not to panic.

“Do you want to try some of my breakfast? I went to get dim-sum from China, french toast from Germany, and-”

The staff room light flicks on. Gakushuu panics.

Cosplay-teacher, standing in the doorway holding too many takeout boxes and looking eerily identical to the photograph in Gakushuu’s hand with too many waving tentacles holding too many takeout boxes, panics as equally panicky as Gakushuu does.

“Stop yelling!” Cosplay-teacher screams.

“You stop yelling!” Gakushuu shrieks.

“Both of us stop yelling!” Cosplay-teacher screams back. “Count of 3! 1! 2!”

“3!” Gakushuu shouts in time, and slaps a hand over his mouth. Glances at the photo again, then at Cosplay-teacher, tentacles still waving weirdly in the air as the ever-present smile remains frozen.

“Uhm,” Gakushuu says, “you are… Koro-sensei?”

“In the flesh,” Koro-sensei says, sounding as nervous as Gakushuu feels. The tentacles wiggle faster. 

Gakushuu tears his eyes away from them. “You’re a giant octopus,” Gakushuu says.

Koro-sensei stares at him for a while, then says, “yes.”

Gakushuu shakes his head. “No, you’re not.” He puts the photo frame down, slowly walks over to what must be Karasuma-sensei’s desk, and then flips the dossier open. It’s still redacted and nonsensical but Koro-sensei seems slightly more on edge, if Gakushuu was reading the nervous tentacle vibrating right.

“Can you please tell me what is going on with class 3-E?” Gakushuu asks politely, because whether he was an actual giant yellow octopus or a really dedicated cosplay lover, he was still a teacher. Sort of?

“I don’t want to reveal any international secrets,” Koro-sensei blabbers, then blanches. As much as someone with a giant yellow head and a singular expression could anyways but Gakushuu feels the sentiment. 

“International secrets?” Gakushuu asks, eyes wide with mock innocence. “That’s okay, you don’t have to tell me.” Then he holds Koro-sensei’s stare for an unnerving amount of time. 

Koro-sensei stares back.

Gakushuu keeps staring. 

Koro-sensei keeps staring back.

Clearly this wasn’t working. Gakushuu needed a new game plan, stat. 

“3-E students are fucking useless,” Gakushuu says.

Koro-sensei doesn’t break eye contact, but his tentacles twitch.

“They’re weak and stupid,” Gakushuu baits, “they haven’t done anything to benefit the world. You’re a horrible teacher. 3-E will never contribute to society. Sugino sucks at baseball. Isogai-”

“3-E’s supposed to assassinate me so I don’t blow up the world!” Koro-sensei says quickly. "They're really good at it! They're smart and great, shut up, I love them!"

Gakushuu waits until Koro-sensei calms down, then says, “explain yourself.”

“I already gave away too much!” Koro-sensei says hysterically.

“I’m sure the Japanese Government and my father would love to hear about you dropping international secrets like this,” Gakushuu blackmails, waving the redacted dossier. “Everything I need to know, and this can stay between us.”

Koro-sensei looks conflicted, or as conflicted as he possibly could look. Why does he have one expression? Can he open his mouth? How was he supposed to eat dim-sum from China? He waves his tentacles and seems to be deliberating for a while, while Gakushuu waits. “I blew up the moon,” Koro-sensei says, “and I’ll blow up the earth too, after teaching class 3-E for one year, unless they can assassinate me by their graduation.”

“That’s fucking stupid,“ Gakushuu says. 

Koro-sensei shrugs with his many tentacles.

Gakushuu glances at his watch. It’s still pretty early but students should start arriving soon, which means he should start taking his leave. “I have to go,” he says, “but I’ll be back to get the rest of the story. Don’t worry, I’ll keep this to myself until then.”

“See you then, Asano junior,” Koro-sensei says. Gakushuu climbs out the window and heads back home, and remains calm up until the point he clambers through his window into bed, and then starts to properly freak out because what the fuck just happened? 

\--

There’s a knock on his bedroom door, and Gakushuu peeks his head out from under the covers. His housekeeper, Tamiko opens the door and tilts her head at him. “You’re looking peachy, sleepyhead,” she says, “your father asked me to check up on you.”

“I’m fine,” Gakushuu croaks out. 

“Uh-huh,” Tamiko says, “you must be really sick if you’re still sleeping in. You want breakfast, sweetheart?”

Trying to figure shit out can wait until he’s eaten, Gakushuu supposes. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: Karma the Cat  
> [General] [No Archive Warnings Apply]  
> Characters: Gakushuu, Karma, 3-E  
> Tags: Animal Transformation, Urban Fantasy, Magical Realism, Karma as a cat  
> Summary: The original, longer and unresolved version of [Swish and Flick](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22079479) where Karma gets turned into a cat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic was originally the uncut version of Swish and Flick, which was a fic where Karma gets turned into a cat. I couldn't figure out a nice, short way to complete this, which is why I ended up chopping it into bits and using it for Swish. 
> 
> If you recall, in Swish, Gakushuu has magic for the sole purpose of having an easy way to resolve that conflict and turn Karma back into a human. In this original version, he did not.
> 
> The premise is that Gakushuu ran into Karma-the-cat on the way to school in the morning and brought him along to school. (Karma made a fuss because he didn't want to walk all the way until Gakushuu picked him up.) They then parted ways and Karma went up the hill to look for 3-E.

**Karma the Cat**

“I’ll get cat food!” Koro-sensei proclaims happily, and flies off. He returns a few seconds later with a grocery bag, and then appears by Karma’s side, with an open can of what seems to be premium cat food. “Eat up, kitty!”

Maybe Karma’s just picky, but it looks and smells absolutely disgusting. He makes a face and turns his nose.

“Okay, how about this one?” A new can is presented in front of him. It looks even worse. Karma bats it away.

Koro-sensei’s tentacles droop. “Aw, come on, cat.”

“You just need to coax it a little,” Hara says.

“Maybe we should feed it human food?” Okajima suggests.

Yes! Karma would hug Okajima if he wasn’t, you know, a cat, Actually, on second thought, hugging him as a cat would be better.

“No, that’s unhealthy!” Kurahashi says, “human food doesn’t have the proper nourishment for a cat.”

“But I’m human,” Karma protests.

Koro-sensei presents him with a third can of cat food.

Dammit. Karma hops off Irina’s lap.

“Hey, wait!” Koro-sensei sounds distraught, “I have plenty more brands for you to try!”

“Maybe he’s going to hunt,” Hazama says, “that’s what cats do, after all.”

Hunt, his ass. Karma’s going to get actual food around here. He  wanders down the hill and scales the Kunugigaoka Main Campus school fence effortlessly, then wanders the courtyard.

“Hey!” Someone shouts to his left. Karma’s ear twitches. “No animals allowed!”

Kind of a weird rule, isn’t it, Karma thinks. There was a whole forest of nature next to this place. One of their classrooms were built on a goddamn hill.

The teacher kicks Karma, or attempts to kick Karma. “Scram, cat.”

Never let it be said that Karma wasn’t petty. He sinks his claws into the leather of the shoe. The teacher yelps. The following routine would be hilarious as Karma hangs on for dear life and ruins fine leather as one of the teachers yells bloody murder and tries to swing Karma off his foot.

Then, luckily or unluckily, because Karma had gone 3 years never once crossing paths with Asano on the same route to school but now had the coincidence of running into him twice a day, hears a “Yamamoto-sensei!”

“Get this vermin off me!” The teacher, Yamamoto, growls. Karma growls back. 

Karma releases his hold on the shoe and bounds over to Asano. “Give me food.”

"Oh," Asano says. "It's you!"

Karma's a distinctive looking cat. 

“You know this… thing?” Yamamoto makes a face. 

“I saw this cat on the way to school today,” he says. Asano picks Karma up. “Was there a problem, Yamamoto-sensei?”

“This cat tried to bite my leg off!” Yamamoto says. What an exaggeration. Karma hisses at him, and smiles smugly when Yamamoto takes a step back.

Asano inclines his head, still smiling. ”Because you tried to kick it.”

Yamamoto’s face turns red. “I, I-” he splutters.

“We’re built next to a patch of forest, Yamamoto-sensei,” Asano says coldly, and Karma’s impressed at the terrifying aura he exudes while smiling mildly, “animals get in sometimes, that’s inevitable. I’m pretty sure this cat would have just left you alone if you didn’t try to provoke it in the first place, yes?”

Karma would stick his tongue out if he could. Wait, he can, he’s a cat, not a tongueless creature.

Karma sticks his tongue out. Asano looks amused for a split second before his face settles back into the eerie calm, and Yamamoto frowns a little disconcertingly. 

“See you around, sensei,” Asano says. He pats Karma’s head twice and walks off. Karma grins at Yamamoto’s red face. So unfair how Asano can threaten teachers and get away with it. Being the principal’s son sure has its perks.

“You’re okay, kitty? He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Asano says. He sets Karma down and crouches, and starts patting him. Karma lets him, because he’s awesome like that. 

“What do you think I am, weak?” Karma snorts.

“Feisty,” Asano says, “okay boy. What are you doing here? Something about Kunugigaoka that catches your fancy?”

“My classmates tried to feed me cat food,” Karma says. 

“Aww,” Asano says, clearly not speaking cat. 

Karma rolls his eyes. He lifts a paw and gestures to where he thinks his stomach is, and opens his mouth.

“Does your paw hurt?” Asano sounds concerned. He reaches a hand out. Karma bats it away.

Karma glares. “Food, idiot.” He headbutts Asano in the stomach. 

“Aww,” Asano says, again. He starts patting Karma.

“I hate you,” Karma proclaims. He chomps down on Asano’s finger.

“Ow!” Asano pulls away, looking betrayed. “Why did you do that?” 

Karma narrows his eyes. Opens his mouth, closes it, and mimes chewing on something. 

“Wait, you’re hungry,” Asano’s eyes widen, “you tried to tell me, holy shit.”

Finally.

“Food,” Karma says.

Asano’s still regarding him warily. “Can I pick you up?”

“Knock yourself out,” Karma says. “If it means I don’t have to walk.” He hops into Asano’s arms. 

Asano stands up. “This is fucking weird,” Asano mutters to himself. He carries Karma outside, says “wait here,” and disappears for five minutes to reemerge with his bag. Asano sits cross-legged on the floor with his bento and starts tearing apart bits of his katsudon. Asano holds out a piece with his fingers. Karma sniffs it, decides it is infinite times better than whatever Koro-sensei tried to feed him, and takes it off Asano’s fingers. Without biting it, because Karma’s super nice as a cat.

“You know,” Asano says, breaking the silence, “I got kicked out of class today.”

That certainly explains why Asano was roaming in the halls when everyone else was in class, Karma thinks. But it had worked in his favor so he wasn’t going to question it. But now that Asano brought up the topic, it certainly piqued Karma’s curiosity. “Why?” 

“The principal is letting me take days off at school to self-study,” Asano mutters, stabbing a fork into his bento. “Which means he’s going to fuck 3-A up.”

Karma regards that for a moment. Yeah, he agrees, the principal was messed up. “He’s such a dick,” Asano continues. He feeds Karma another bite of the katsudon. “He’s smart but he’s a shitty teacher.”

Karma wouldn’t know, but he can’t imagine being taught by the older Asano. 

“I mean, he’s just,” Asano says, “he thinks he can run the world and shape it to his stupid ideals with some totalitarian schooling system using fear as the main motivator.”

Dammit. Karma came down for food, not for Asano’s sob backstory. “Feed me and stop talking,” Karma says.

“Sorry, you’re probably starving,” Asano says. He cuts a bit of fish for Karma too. "I just can't stand him, you know."

Yeah, the Asano's aren’t exactly the best role models for healthy family dynamics. Karma would shrug if he could. He does try. It doesn’t work. 

“I wish,” Asano says. Pauses, shuts his mouth with an audible click.

“Asano?” Karma says. He bats at his hand. 

Asano bites his lip. Then, to Karma’s hysterical horror, he starts crying. 

“Oh no,” Karma yowls, “stop! Stop!”

Asano sets the bento aside and starts rubbing at his eyes.

“Stop crying!” Karma shrieks. “I can’t deal with this!” 

If anything, Asano sobs harder. 

“Oh my god,” Karma says. He can’t believe he’s about to do this. He nudges Asano’s food out of the way, making sure nothing spills (because he'd still like to eat it and he's not going to eat it off the floor! Karma has standards, okay?), hops into his lap and then musters what must be some built-in animal instinct and starts _purring_.

“Oh,” Asano makes a small noise. He wipes his cheeks with the back of his hand. “Thanks.”

Karma huffs a little. He might be blushing if he wasn't a cat, especially given he'd just crawled onto Asano's lap on his own accord. Maybe he is blushing and his fur is just hiding it. Can cats blush? “Sorry your dad sucks,” he says.

Asano sniffles. “You’re not just a cat, are you,” he says.

“Damn right I’m not,” Karma says. 

“No, I mean,” Asano straightens up. He gently pushes Karma off him, and digs in his bag to pull out a notepad and a pen. “You’re not just a cat.”

Karma stares, wide-eyed.

“Sure, cats can be intelligent and intuitive,” Asano says, face still splotchy but now looking very determined, “but this is way too creepy.” He stares at the bento and yea, okay, seems like Karma has placed the chopsticks on top it’s holder and covered the bento with it’s lid, but in his defense... well, food. Spill. Eat. What?

Asano places the notepad and pen in front of Karma. Karma blinks, unimpressed. Sits back on his haunches and holds up his two front paws.

‘This behavior is exactly what I’m talking about,” Asano snaps his fingers. “And the way you tried to tell me you were hungry. Okay, uh, how about you bite the pen?”

Karma tries. It fails.

“Can you type?” Asano pulls out his phone.

Karma slaps a paw fruitlessly at the screen.

“Okay, how about this,” Asano says, “lift left paw for no, right for yes. Are you human?”

Karma lifts his right paw.

“Woah,” Asano says, “control question. Are you not human?”

Karma narrows his eyes, and raises his left paw.

“This is so weird,” Asano mutters. “Okay, do I know you in real life?” 

Karma puts his left paw down and raises his right paw.

“Are you in this school?”

Right. Yes.

“In 3-A?”

Left. No.

“Okay, yeah, attendance was full today, don’t know why I asked. You’re in my year, right?”

Right. Yes.

“3-B?” Asano asks.

Karma shakes his head, and raises his left paw. No.

“Okay, 3-E,” Asano guesses. 

Karma raises his right paw. Yes.

“I should’ve guessed that first,” Asano shakes his head, “weird stuff is happening there. Who are you?”

“Karma Akabane,” Karma says. 

“Whatever,” Asano sighs. “I’ll find out. Is that where you went just now?”

Karma nods, and raises his right paw.

“And I’m guessing since you came to find me, no one figured out you were their missing classmate,” Asano thinks. Then his eyes widen comically. “Oh my god, you’re Karma Akabane. You skip school so much they probably didn't consider it an anomaly.”

“Wow, you’re actually pretty smart,” Karma says. He raises a right paw.

“Oh my god,” Asano repeats. He looks appalled for a few moments, then suddenly makes a betrayed sounding noise and says, “you ate my lunch.”

Seriously? Karma doesn’t break eye contact as he stalks over to Asano’s bento, flips the lid off the box, and faceplants into his rice.

Asano makes another affronted noise. “Gross! You’re a cat!”

“What, so it won’t be gross if I was a human?” Karma says. 

Asano swats Karma away, and Karma swipes at his hand with claws, because he’s not THAT nice. Asano packs up his food and says, “I’m going to pick you up and you’re going to be good about it, or you’re walking the entire way.”

Karma huffs. It’s not like he tried to claw him the previous times Asano picked him up anyhow.

Asano seems a little awkward at how to handle Karma the cat now with the knowledge that the cat is, in fact, Karma Akabane. But he seems to just shrug and hold him like a normal cat. 

Because fate was both on and against him, they run into 3-E on the school grounds.

“Guys, that’s the cat from just now!” Fuwa says. 

“Oh, it is!” Isogai speaks up. “Asano, you found it?”

“I found him, yes,” Asano says. “Do you know who this is?”

There’s a pause. “Uh, a cat?” Nakamura says, sounding suspicious.

“Hmm,” Asano says, “I suppose this does look like a cat.”

The puzzled face of his friends are hilarious. Karma presses a paw to Asano’s cheek.

“Uh, it looks like a cat because it is a cat,” Terasaka says slowly, “are you stupid?”

“Did you feed it?” Kurahashi asks, “we tried to feed it cat food but it ran away.”

“Cat food?” Asano sounds delighted. “No, he’s a starving cat. You should try to feed it again.”

Karma narrows his eyes. He flexes and pinches Asano’s face with his claws. Asano, the asshole, just laughs. 

“I think he’d gone nuts,” Yoshida says in a mock whisper.

“Hey, Shiota,” Asano says. He pulls Karma’s paw off his bleeding cheek and passes Karma off to Nagisa. 

Nagisa holds Karma slightly awkwardly. “Uh, why did you give me the cat?”

Asano shrugs, then suddenly it’s like a switch flipped and he straightens up. “I have a favor to ask of class 3-E,” Asano says, voice and face serious. Karma doesn’t have time to appreciate the sudden change in demeanor from Bitch-sensei to Karasuma-sensei in a third of a second when Asano says, “I need you to assassinate my father.”

“What?!” Karma shares his classmates sentiments. What? Did he accidentally give something away? He was a cat, for god’s sake!

Asano launches into a bitter and aggressive monologue, and everything starts to make sense. But Karma keeps remembering the picture of Asano crying his eyes out. He starts digging his claws into Nagisa’s arms without realizing it, until Nagisa yelps. “I think he doesn’t like me very much,” Nagisa winces, “I think you should hold him, Asano.”

“Oh no,” Asano shakes his head. 

“Absolutely not,” Karma agrees.

“He definitely wants you to take him,” Nagisa says, “I’m not good with cats.”

Asano seems rather amused. Karma hisses at him, and Asano flicks his finger at Karma’s forehead. 

“I don’t think the cat likes Asano very much either,” Yada says.

Karma tries to bite down on Asano’s finger. Asano scowls at him, but takes him from Nagisa, and holds him out at arm’s length when Karma kicks.

“Maybe I should take him,” Kurahashi offers.

Karma thinks, then decides he’d rather he held by Asano. Contrary to popular belief, he’s not good with girls at all. Karma stills, and taps Gakushuu’s hand twice, and shakes his head. Gakushuu looks more amused at that. “I’m flattered,” he says, and tucks Karma in the crook of his arm.

“Did the cat just shake it’s head?” Nakamura demands. 

“It did,” Asano says, but doesn’t elaborate further, which infuriates Nakamura and makes the class even more confused. “So,” Asano says, “what are your thoughts on my proposal?”

“I’ll kick your ass,” Karma says. ”I’m going to take that top spot from you, just you wait.”

“Is that a yes?” Asano asks.

Karma lazily lifts his right paw.

“Holy shit, he’s a cat whisperer,” Sugaya says in awe.

Karma would flip them the bird if he could. He does lift up the back of his paw towards them and flexes his middle claw, and Asano seems to understand enough to say, “the cat says fuck you.”

Karma nods.

“The cat nodded again!” Nakamura points an accusing finger. “What is this!? Did you send that cat to spy on us just now?”

“This cat is Karma Akabane,” Asano tells them.

There’s a long silence.

“What the fuck?!” Nakamura rages, and then the class erupts into angry protests. “That’s the worst excuse I’ve ever heard!”

Neither Karasuma-sensei nor Koro-sensei had once succeeded but somehow Asano does, the metaphorical switch flips and suddenly he glares at everyone and everyone, miraculously, shuts up. Kataoka takes an involuntary step back, and bumps into Isogai.

Asano relaxes, and bounces Karma to his other arm. “Akabane,” he says, “do something stupid.”

“I’m a genius,” Karma says.

Asano huffs. “Come on.”

Karma sticks his tongue out.

“Cats do that,” Nakamura says, voice softer but still sounding as pissed. 

Asano frowns. “Why would I lie? What would I gain from this? This cat is Karma Akabane, your classmate.”

“People don’t just turn into cats,” Terasaka says. 

“That doesn’t change the fact that this cat is Akabane,” Asano says. “Shiota, you’re his best friend.” He holds Karma out again.

If someone passes Karma around like a party favor one more time, he’s going to lose it. Nagisa gingerly takes Karma from Asano again.

“Uh, Karma? Are you really a cat?” Nagisa asks.

“Yep,” says Karma. He raises a right paw.

“Are you sure this is really Karma?” Kayano says. 

“You can believe me or not,” Asano shrugs, “I found him on the way to school as a cat, and he made me bring him to Kunugigaoka. He disappeared for a bit which is when I assumed he went to look for your class, then came back and ate half my lunch.”

“Oh my god, we tried to feed him cat food,” Nagisa says in horror. 

“It was awful,” Karma complains.

“Oh well, have fun with the cat,” Asano says. He buries his hands in his pockets. “See you. Think about my proposal.” He walks off like some mysterious character in a manga. Karma huffs. 

“I think we should call Karasuma-sensei,” Isogai says. 

“Already on it,” Katoka says. She pulls out her phone. The class heads back up to 3-E, everyone peppering Karma with questions and Karma being unable to answer because he’s, well, a cat. 

Karma hops off Nagisa’s arms the moment they arrive at class, and jumps into his seat.

“This is so messed up,” Hayami says.

“Akabane,” says Karasuma-sensei. He stares at Karma. “You are him?”

“Yep,” says Karma. He raises his right paw. 

“I’m not paid enough for this,” Karasuma-sensei rubs the bridge of his nose. 

Koro-sensei and Bitch-sensei appear at the door together. Koro-sensei immediately phases next to Karma, cooing. “So cute! Karma, is it really you?”

Karma blinks impassively. How many more people are going to ask him that?

“How do we turn him back into a human?” Kayano asks.

“I’m pretty sure Asano was still fucking with us,” Nakamura says.

“I know,” Koro-sensei says. He scribbles a whole list of things on the board. “If this cat is really Karma, he would be able to answer these questions!”

Karma blinks at the blackboard. The first question asks about the correct written kanji of his name, the second on his address, and the third about his phone number. There were 5 options for each question. 

“Question one, Karma! What’s the answer?”

“Three,” Karma says. Then makes a face because it comes out as a meow. He says three twice more.

Koro-sensei’s head turns orange. “Correct! What’s the next!”

“Four, four, four, four!” Karma says. 

“Double correct! Final question!” Koro-sensei flails his tentacles excitedly.

“One,” Karma says. 

“I’m just impressed a cat can read,” Terasaka says. 

“That’s not just a cat,” Itona says. “That’s Karma.”

“What do we do now?” Sugino asks. 

“I have absolutely no idea,” Koro-sensei proclaims. The class gives him dirty looks.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: Loop de Loop
> 
> [Teen And Up Audiences] [Some Depictions of Violence] [Major Character Death]
> 
> Characters: Karma (POV), Gakushuu, 3-E, Koro-sensei
> 
> Tags (Trigger Warnings): Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, Time loop, Recurring temporary character deaths, Suicide, Angst
> 
> Summary: Karma and Gakushuu are in a never ending timeloop to save the world. (Koro-sensei keeps blowing up, and they keep trying to stop it.) It takes a while for Karma to figure that out, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I debated posting this because of... well, a lot of reasons, really. I almost wasn't going to - you'll know why if you read it, I think. It's one of my favorite-concept incomplete stories which I wrote shortly after Dream and didn't finish and I don't think I ever will, so here it is. 
> 
> Please heed the trigger warnings before you read the fic! There's recurring character deaths where everyone dies because the world ends multiple times, but we're focused on Karma and Gakushuu. There's suicide, in which they learn that dying prematurely to the end of the world doesn't stop the loop, but simply resets it. There's some descriptions of violence. The nature of the plot allows for angst.
> 
> It's kind of... ahem. Personally I would say I don't think it's too bad, but you guys know my track record with these things which are. Not great.

_ Something is wrong. _

(Asano is- Karma knows him, Asano, knows the boy is definitely  _ insane _ ; the smile he has on his face right now is cocaine-high bordering on mental patient. Terasaka bristles like a wet cat when Asano steps into his space, Karma barely blinks and the larger boy is face-flat on the dirt and Asano is emptying the contents of his bag onto the ground.

Positively off the rails, Karma thinks, but-

“Wait!” Isogai yells, arm outstretched and a look of dawning horror on his face and Karma remembers that they’re harboring an international secret, and he turns around but he’s not too sure what he plans to do, not when Asano giggles maniacally and cocks the pistol he’s grabbed from amongst Terasaka’s belongings, and Karma freezes.

“You all are so  _ scared _ ,” Asano says, “don’t worry, they’re not real bullets. I know,  _ I know.” _

3-E exchanges panicked glances amongst each other, Terasaka clambers off the floor with a hurt look on his face and a sprained wrist, Karma sees the glint in Asano’s eyes and he knows what it means and he opens his mouth to shout anything,  _ anything, _

but the resounding gunshot that follows drowns out his words, and Asano-)

Asano is,  _ psycho _ , for the lack of a better word. He’s “absolutely lost it” as quoted by harried students in the hallway that they pass and Karma wonders what he’d missed in his suspension. Isogai looks haunted when approached about it, rubs his wrist as if reminiscent of another hand gripping it hard enough to bruise; Katoka winces, visibly, and Karma knows it's bad. 

It starts off mere curiosity, they had been classmates for a year and a half (and a bit more) and they’ve clashed head to head academically and otherwise, Karma’s curious. He keeps an eye out for a blonde shock of hair from across the hall but the line of students in 3-A counts odd, and he cranes his ears for whispering.

“We haven’t seen him around,” Nagisa tells him, but his brows are furrowed, “we don’t come down to main campus often. But rumors have been spreading that he’s, uh, gone nuts.” And Karma was positively sure that boy had been insane the first time they made eye contact, had just been a matter of time before everyone else caught on too, but-

A horrific screech from audio feedback and the students clap their hands over their ears, then a thud and a yelp and then Asano is there, grinning as he wrenches the microphone away from the announcer. In the audience, in the seats, the principal gets up with a frantic look on his face.

He’s… psycho, Karma thinks again, finally understanding what his cohort means. Asano looks like a man who has lost his mind; he’s still dressed impeccably as accordance to conduct code but the look in his eyes is something that chills Karma to the bone. His hair is uncombed and his bangs fall messily in front of his eyes, and Asano says into the microphone, “Hi everyone!”

Nobody says a word, nobody expects anyone to, Karma’s jaw drops and it might have become unhinged but  _ Asano was _ , and then of course the day gets worse, and Asano says, “hi 3-E! Haven’t seen you in a while!”

Then the microphone gets snatched out of his hand by their principal, who looks irate and on the verge of actual tears. Standing side-by-side it’s ever more apparent they’re father and son, but Asano is giggling uncontrollably into his palm and the principal says a few soft words to him as he hands the microphone back to the ruffled announcer, then leads his son away by the hand.

That’s when it starts, Karma thinks, but he doesn’t want to call it an  _ obsession _ . He just pays closer attention, sort of, a puzzle and he itches to solve this one. It’s, intriguing, to say the least, he doesn’t see much of Asano around and the council president band is donned by Sakakibara with a pained expression, and the seat he used to occupy in the 3-A classroom is empty. Hallways buzz; they’re but tasteless rumors and Karma knows nothing more than he did.

3-E doesn’t go down to main campus and it’s for the best, really, but trouble has a way of finding them and today it takes place in the form of Asano dropping down from the trees with a “boo!” And nearest to Asano’s surprise entrance, Muramatsu, fumbles with and drops his gun. Next to him, Sugino snatches it out of the air and flings it into the trees.

Asano seems unphased. “You guys seem to be having fun,” he says, flits through the targets and obstacle courses set up with scary nonchalance. Karasuma steps forward and reaches an arm out, tugs him gently away. “Carry on,” Karasuma instructs, then takes the path down to main campus with Asano humming softly at his heels, and none of them do.

They run into him more often than not, of course they run into him. Asano pops in and out of their classes and seems largely curious but unaffected by their activities. 

(“It doesn’t matter even if he doesn’t know what’s going on,” they hear Karasuma speak angrily to the principal as Asano leans against Isogai’s leg and draws circles in the sand and the class stays quiet, “this is still highly classified-”

“I  _ know  _ that,” the principal stresses, “I-”

Then their voices hush, and then they raise again, and they hear the tail-end of Karasuma’s “-he’s  _ insane _ !” and the voice of their principal crack as he says, “I  _ know,  _ but I don’t know why.”)

But that’s not all there is to it, Karma notices, no, he  _ suspects.  _

Because as Isogai runs his fingers through Asano’s hair and the boy leans into the contact, when everyone is staring enraptured at the closed door and straining to listen to the argument between their teachers, Karma looks back and he catches just a tiny glimpse (a flicker) of  _ sharpness  _ in Asano’s eyes that belongs not to a crazy person. He’s, Karma realizes then, attentive. Listening.

_ Waiting.  _ For something to happen.

  
  
  


Karma baits, “shouldn’t you be at class, mr ex-student council president? Are you  _ insane _ ?” He knows it won’t work, not with the pressure with the entire school and his father and he knows he won’t be the one to crack Asano’s shell, the  _ facade  _ he has got going on, and Karma just  _ knows  _ there is one. 

Asano is  _ psycho.  _

But he’s not.

“Karma,” Katoka hisses, in warning, even Nagisa looks to him with disapproval, and Asano blinks up at him with wide eyes and Karma narrows his. Nothing happens, he gets a warning from Isogai and Asano absently doodles circles as he sits next to Karma at the back of the classroom, but perfect circles are not the drawings of someone who have lost their mind.

_ Psycho  _ doesn’t even begin to cover it, but  _ obsession  _ does, perhaps, through rose tinted lenses. They don’t do any assassination with him in the classroom; that’s a good 50% of their opportunities lost, Asano just sitting in the back and mindlessly doing his own thing but it’s now no longer a suspicion; sometimes Karma wonders if he’d imagined it, if his mind was so desperate to understand what had happened to Asano overnight that he spun up a tale and told himself that there was more than there is to be.

But people like Asano don’t just  _ go insane _ . He had been insane from the beginning but snapping wasn’t just  _ like that  _ (like that). There was   


something   


wrong.

  
  
  


“I know,” Karma hisses to him, he grips Asano’s wrist too hard and he thinks of Isogai and wonders if it will bruise. Asano blinks at him for a moment, that infuriating blank look in his eyes, but there it was

that flicker of  _ something, _

and

Asano tilts his head and smiles a small smile and Karma knows he’s crazy but not crazy; Asano says the most chilling sentence he has ever and Karma knows he was sound of mind when he does (because he was never crazy)

“do you, now,"

And Karma knows,  _ knows _ , despite the lack of context and how unbelievable it would be, in any situation, Karma knows that-

“He’s not crazy,” Karma insists again, “he’s… pretending,” and even it sounds weak in his own head, worse in his voice.

“Karma,” Nagisa says, “I want to believe you. But why?"

Karma drags them outside and pulls Asano up and down twists and turns, until they’re perched on tree roots under shade of the canopy somewhere to the north of the classroom. Karma settles down on a sturdy root and watches as Asano curls up in a nook and closes his eyes. 

“I know you’re not crazy,” Karma says, he wills his voice to stay steady, “I know you’re not.” Nagisa’s voice echoes in his head, as do the many unanswered questions, and Karma asks, “why are you doing this?”

The answer he gets is not silence but Karma suddenly wishes it was because it was a landslide from here, (he wishes he could turn back time but time doesn’t work that way, it doesn’t, it  _ doesn’t, _ ) months and months of searching for the truth and chipping off bits of Asano’s pretend play and weaving his own version of the truth and he hysterically wishes he never tried to break it down in the first place

“It’s gets boring otherwise,”

“H-huh? W-what?” Karma gapes, it’s the clearest sentence Asano has ever said to him . 

“It’s so boring,” Asano giggles to himself, 

“after a few runs you just want to see what happens, you know? How many times can you roll a dice? How many times over do you live your life, Karma Akabane?”

“I don’t understand,” Karma begs. 

“Do you hear that?” Asano says, eyes wide, “we never die. We don’t die, if the world ends we live, on, forever. It’s a punishment. They won’t let me die, I’ve tried to, I’ve-”

“I miss you,” Asano blurts, a hand reaching out to tug at Karma’s shoulder and Karma doesn't know why but he lets it; perhaps it’s because that’s the most normal reaction Asano has had despite the strangeness of it. There’s no context but there hasn’t been for months and months on end and Karma lets it happen. 

Asano’s arms are tight around his torso, hugging Karma so tightly like it'd all disappear if he lets go. 

“Don’t forget me,” Asano blurts, tears running down his cheeks, “don’t forget,  _ please-” _

“I won’t.”   


“ _ You always break your promises-” _   


_ “ _ _ I WON’ _ _ T-” _

“What-” _   
_

“What’s going-”

_   
  
_

Karma rolls.out of bed and lands on a floor with a solid thud. He grabs his phone off the nightstand with shaky hands and stares at the date and time and again, and his head swims-

-wait-

  
  


-and with trembling fingers he dials a number-

  
  


_ring, ring_

_ring, ring_

“A-asano?” Karma says, he barely has the first syllable out and on the other end of the line Asano screams. Karma drops the phone and slaps the speaker button and says, “what’s happening, what’s happening-”

“You remember,” Asano is sobbing, “why, why  _ this time why-” _

“What’s  _ happening _ ?!” Karma screams louder. He’s crying. “I’m so scared, I don’t understand-”

Asano says, suddenly still and chilling, “we don’t die. I’m so sorry.”

(The last thing Karma remembers, fighting for his life on the hill behind Kunugigaoka High School where the 3-E classroom sits. He’s screaming, Kayano is bleeding out on the grass and Koro-sensei and Reaper are battling and the world turns red and he remembers they don’t win.)

“Next year,” Asano’s voice is quiet over the phone, and Karma curls up against the floor to hear him speak, “one night before our graduation, the world ends. The world will end and every time it does, I wake up here, at this time, one year before it does.”

Karma inhales sharply.

“It’s,” Asano tells him, “beautiful. The most gorgeous sunset you’ll ever see.”

“Oh,” Karma says.

“I’m so sorry,” Asano says, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” he repeats it like a mantra, “Akabane I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry-”

“Akabane?” Says the principal in confusion, opening the door. 

Karma looks over his shoulder and frowns and pushes past him, “where’s Asano?” 

“Akabane,” the principal says again. 

“Where is he?” Karma stresses. He pushes past and sprints up the stairs twice at a time, kicks down doors along the hallways with a “what the  _ fuck are you doing _ ” chasing his ears, slams his hands down on a doorknob and stumbles into Asano’s bedroom where he’s sitting on the bed with his hands in his head and sobbing quietly, phone by his legs and call still running.

Karma ends the call. “Asano!” He shouts, “tell me this is a joke, tell me this is a  _ joke- _

  
  
  


_ What the fuck is going on?!” _

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” Asano chants, tears flowing and hands crushed over his eyes, his father at the doorway as Karma kneels in front of him and cradles his head and begs for an answer, anything, anything-

_   
  
  
_

“I’m in a time loop. Our third year of school starts tomorrow; one year from now the world will end, and then immediately after I wake up back here. I’ve tried my best to find out why, I’ve tried to stop it, I’ve tried to escape it but I can’t, I can’t, I don’t know why you’re here, I’m sorry you’re here, you don’t deserve this, you don’t deserve to remember.”

“How many times?” Karma asks quietly, running his fingers through Asano’s hair.

Asano is quiet, then, “six. What do you remember?” 

“You were,” Karma said, “insane. You went crazy. You hung around 3-E a lot and you made me promise not to forget.”

“That,” Asano laughs wetly, “was the last iteration. It’s not the first time you’ve promised me that. You should have broken it again.”

__

He’s still on suspension. He doesn’t know how Asano explains his gatecrashing to the principal, but his suspension isn’t extended and it’s not brought up again. He thinks of 3-E, thinks of Nagisa and Koro-sensei, watches the morning news hoping that something would change,

and when Karasuma-sensei knocks at his door and demands secrecy, Karma knows that Asano is right.

__

But why?

This time round, Karma finds out, the role Asano plays is not different from what he would expect, the same boy seemingly unchanged from the normal order of how things should have gone; cocky, spoiled, mockingly sneering down at 3-E and self-assured in his own game, not  _ crazy, _

except he is. Karma knows, watches, he doesn’t know what to expect and Asano doesn’t slip up from his perspective even though he’s the only one that knows to look for something, turns the rubber knife over in his pant pocket and feels his heart beat

_ thump _

_ thump _

and Asano’s gaze sweeps over his like he’s  _ nothing.  _

“It’s,” Asano says, “so hard. To keep pretending you care, about your grades and your school life, when you know that the world is going to end and you can’t stop it.” Asano is surprisingly talkative, introspective about things. “When I acted, ah, insane, it’s like a mental break for me. I behave however I want. And there are no repercussions from it, one blink and everything gets reset back to normal, flipped over like an hourglass.”

“I can’t go to sleep,” Asano says, “I can’t close my eyes, I keep wondering where I’ll be, when I’ll be, if I open them again. It’s so tiring. I’m so tired.”

“Have you ever seen the world end, Karma Akabane?” Asano whispers to him in the dead of the night, the two of them sprawled spread-eagle on the top of a hill, watching stars blink. “It’s beautiful.”

The thing is,  _ the thing is _ , Karma knows how,  _ why  _ the world ends. He knows why and Asano doesn’t, and he can’t help but think that Asano might kill him about it, (he knows it’s not his fault, it’s not his fault that he’s in 3-E and he  _ knows  _ and Asano doesn’t, and has to try to fight to save the world six times even if he doesn't know what he’s fighting); had it been him Karma would have been pissed to high heaven (hell). 

He knows why, and when he brings it up (finally) Asano laughs. Laughs and laughs and laughs

and laughs

and laughs, and then cries, 

and cries, and cries,

and cries.

“I’m sorry,” Karma whispers. “You could never have known. You could never have saved the world, I’m sorry you never knew that and I’m sorry you still had to try.”

“I’m sorry,” Asano says. He doesn’t say why, he doesn’t bring it up again, but one week later he kicks Terasaka to the ground and snatches a pistol from his bag, and Karma has a hand outstretched and a pounding in his ears and a scream that almost tears his throat apart when Asano pulls the trigger on himself and hits the ground solidly.

_r_ _ing, ring_

_ring, ring_

Karma is still crying, had been crying when the world ended, still crying when he wakes up one year before it does. Grabs his phone off the nightstand and presses it to his ear, hot tears stinging at his eyes and his hands scrunching up the sheets.

“Hello?”

“You  _ asshole _ !” Karma screams, “ _ you fucking asshole! _ ” He yells until his throat is hoarse and Asano stays quiet on the line, and when Karma stops yelling he hears that Asano is crying, and he bunches his sheets up on his hands and sobs. “You  _ shot  _ yourself! You left me alone! You  _ killed yourself! _ What if you never made it? What if you didn’t wake up?!”

“I knew I would,” Asano tells him, “I always did.”

“Oh,” Karma says, “oh.”

“Let me in,” Karma says, 1 am on the day before school starts on the Asano’s doorsteps, as the principal gapes at him. 

“I don’t,” starts the principal.

“Father,” says Asano, coming up from behind them with a tired expression, running his hands up and down his arms. “Let him in.” He pulls Karma around the principal,  _ his father _ , and all the way up to his room, and Karma remembers this scene.  _ Deja Vu _ .

“Three for you,” Asano says, “Eight for me.”

“This is messed up,” says Karma. 

“Yeah,” says Asano.

This time around Asano plays aloof, cold, not unlike the previous run, but one major thing does change; Karma keeps his grip firm on Asano's whereabouts and refuses to let him _out of his sight_.

“I’m making sure you don’t do anything so fucking stupid again,” Karma snarls at him, hand gripped around his wrist hard enough to bruise, “how  _ dare  _ you.”

“It wouldn’t have been permanent,” Asano says.

“ _ That’s not the point _ ,” Karma says, “and if we want a shot at saving the world, we need to work together.”

“I’ve tried,” Asano argues, “so many times. What makes you think that-”

“Because,” Karma tells him, “now you know the secret of 3-E. And you have me on your side.”

Asano, who had impeccable aim from his sporting events, takes to using a pistol pretty well. “This reminds me of iteration four,” Asano muses, cocking the gun. 

“What happened?” Karma says.

“I found a gun,” Asano tells him, “but it had the anti-sensei bullets in, so I thought they were BB pellets and 3-E just played a lot of games in their downtime. Never would have guessed this.”

He fires three shots in quick succession, Karma doesn’t have to look at the target to know he’s hit the bullseye thrice. 

“Oh shut up,” Asano says, elbowing past Karma’s flabbergasted classmates with a glock, “hey _. _ ”

“Hi _ ,”  _ Karma grins, all teeth, and Karasuma and Irina are in too much shock to say anything, not that it would do any good at this juncture, with Koro-sensei and Reaper battling to the death and a whole death-ray aimed down at the school. “Glad to see you all in one piece.”

“My father’s going to have an aneurysm,” Asano mutters.

_r_ _ing, ring_

_ring, ring_

“A-asano,” Karma gasps, “you’re okay.”

“That,” Asano said, “hurt.”

“I’m best friends with your son,” Karma goes right off the bat the moment the principal opens the door, “I’m here to wish him a good council president run.”

He doesn’t think he’ll get tired of the expression on the older Asano’s face. The younger Asano, infinitely less amused, pats the principal on the back in a there, there motion and drags Karma up. 

Karma pushes Asano on the bed and lifts his shirt ; he presses both palms flat onto Asano’s stomach and feels that it’s  _ there _ .

“I’m not dead,” Asano whispers, “I’m here.”

“He  _ impaled  _ you through the stomach,” Karma whispers, “you and Kayano, and I couldn’t do anything-”

Asano smiles at him.

“Maybe we’re going about this all wrong,” Karma says, “Koro-sensei and Reaper both reached their energy limits and blew up. That wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t fighting.”

“We can’t stop them from fighting,” Asano says, hands folded across his stomach as he lies next to Karma on the grass in his backyard, squinting up against the sunlight through the leaves of the tree. “What do you suggest?”

“We need to stop Reaper,” Karma says, “but I don’t know if that’s the right course of action.”

“If we fail,” Asano yawns, “we can always try again.” Karma slaps him, just for that.

“Remember, when I give the cue, shoot Shiro in the face.”

“Is the ammo even real?”

“No, but they’ll probably give him a nasty sting. Now remember-”

“Why the fuck didn’t you get real bullets?”

“Where the fuck am I supposed to find real bullets? Steal them off my teacher’s belt? You managed to kill yourself with one of these, it’d work fine.” 

“BB-gun pellets or no, if I hold a gun at point blank against my forehead, I’m going to die. We’re talking about a rubber bullet from a hundred metres away. You’ll just give him a bruise, at best a concussion.”

“What do you suggest, then?”

“Real knives are easier to get than real bullets.”

“...you’re  _ psycho _ .”

_r_ _ing, ring_

_ring, ring_

“So,” Karma starts, “that didn’t work as planned.”

He can imagine Asano running a tired hand over his face. “Thanks, genius."

"I’m coming over to give your dad a heart attack, it’s funny.”

“This time,” Karma says, “when Reaper kidnaps- or, well, pretends to kidnap Bitch-sensei, we kill him.”

“I didn’t know there was a ‘we’ in this situation,” Asano says.

“”Hear me out,” Karma says, “you’re the one who gets kidnapped.”

“I don’t see how that’s any better,” Asano says, “and Jelavic wasn’t  _ really  _ kidnapped, you idiot. How do you want to pull this off?”

“You don’t sound too opposed to the idea,” Karma quips.

“Well, even if we fail and I die,  _ again _ ,” Asano starts, and Karma kicks him.

“Asano!” Karma scrabbles to his side, “Asano! Don’t die on me again.”

Asano’s eyelids flutter open, then his face contorts in pain. “Did I get him?”

“Did you get him?” Karma says hysterically, “did you get him with the knife that’s currently in your kidney?!”

“Ah, fuck, that’s what it is,” Asano sighs, “hurts like a bitch. At least impalement was an instant death-”

“Shut up!” Karma yells.

“It’s kind of funny,” Asano tells him later, swaddled in hospital sheets as Karma curls up in the chair by his bedside, shortly after Asano signs too many on-disclosure forms and has to pretend to be shocked by the revelation of the secret of 3-E.

“No, it wasn’t,” Karma says.

_r_ _ing, ring_

_ring, ring_

“Why?” Karma says, “why can’t we just do everything right?”

“This is my tenth anniversary,” Asano tells him. “Happy fifth, by the way.”

“That’s fucking morbid,” Karma sniffles into his blankets.

“Looks like it’s starting,” Asano sighs, “tell you what. This time, we don’t try to save the world.”

“Are you  _ fucking kidding?! _ ” Karma protests, “how many more times must we go through this? There  _ has to  _ be a way-”

“I know, Akabane,” Asano tells him gently, “but remember your first run, why I acted the way I did? This opportunity isn’t going to disappear; if we fail, we just end up back here. But aren’t you tired?”

“Exhausted,” Karma admits.

“Then,” Asano tells him, “for one year. Let go, for a bit. It’s going to take its toll, it took me the hard way to figure that out.”

“That’s why you’re so chill about everything,” Karma sighs, “okay, what’s your plan?”

“The fun part is,” Asano says, and there’s actually a mischievous lilt in his voice, “you don’t need one.”

Karma finds out, very reluctantly, that Asano is right. He spends too long feeling guilty for trying to take advantage and  _ have fun _ but, but, he slowly sees it, why Asano chose to do what he did. How many iterations had he run through before he broke down? 

Karma lets himself  _ enjoy  _ things, like he’s a time traveler in a sit-com. He pretends to “slip-up” and calls Kayano Yukimura once and never mentions it again, and now she smiles at him razor-sharp with a wariness around her eyes that Karma delights at. On their island trip they won from 3-A during mid-terms he smashes the pitcher of drinks and pretends it was an accident, gets yelled at, and then praised for helping them dodge a bullet with the whole poisoning debacle as 3-E storms the fortress anyways, all whilst grinning at Kayano who doesn’t stop staring. Asano, dramatic bitch that he is, asks 3-E to  _ assassinate  _ the principal’s ideals and Karma sees the twinkle in his eye at the deliberate word-choice.

“Thanks,” Karma says.

“Hm,” says Asano. 

“It’s tomorrow,” Karma says, “see you on the other side.”

_r_ _ing, ring_

_ring, ring_

“I think,” Karma starts, “we need more help.”

“Kayano Kaede,” Asano says immediately, “and Itona Horibe.”

Karma feels a grin tug at his lips. “They need to keep their tentacles.”

“You’ll help me kill Koro-sensei,” Kayano says. Her face is carefully blank, Karma’s wrists pinned to the floor with her tentacles as she holds him at knifepoint.

Karma almost winces, he remembers how  _ twisted _ she had been, the animosity. But she still hates him with a passion, now, and it’s far too early to change her mind. “It’s what needs to be done,” Karma says, and the grin she gives him is all teeth.

The smile she gives Asano is different, malicious and mean and  _ teasing _ , as he works out the knots in her back and shoulders with his hands and Karma leans against a wall and watches them banter. It’s not quite  _ jealousy _ , yet.

But Itona takes too much of a liking to Asano, who whispers something and smiles and then he has Itona by his feet, gazing up with a quiet sigh and the most awestruck expression Karma had ever seen on Itona. 

“You lied to me,” Kayano says, breathlessly, “you never wanted to kill Koro-sensei at all.”

“Sorry,” says Karma, not feeling sorry.

“Well,” Kayano cracks her fingers, “looks like the truth has come to light today. Fine by me.”

“Karma?” Nagisa runs up to both of them, “you knew all along?”

“Won’t tell me how,” Kayano says, eyes blazing. 

“Was wondering when you’d join the party,” Kayano drawls, and Asano gives her a raised eyebrow and a little smirk. 

Asano turns to Karma, ignoring the looks from 3-E and Karasuma and Irina, and says, “let’s hope this fucking works.” 

_r_ _ing, ring_

_ring, ring_

“Stop dying on me!”

“Hello to you too, Akabane,” Asano greets, cordial as ever, “not the first time I’ve been impaled, not as fun as before, I must say.”

“You shouldn’t be impaled _any_ times,” Karma says.

“Maybe,” Karma suggests, “we should talk to Koro-sensei. Tell him the truth.”

“Horrible idea,” Gakushuu says, “you forget this is how you’re dragged into this mess? I told you about this.”

“You barely told me anything,” Karma says, “you were all hysterical and cryptic and shit. I thought you were  _ crazy _ . Don’t put the blame on the fact you told me barely any information, there’s no logical explanation to how both of us got caught in this stupid time loop.”

“Fine,” Gakushuu says, crossing his arms.

It goes as well as it does, and after Koro-sensei calms down, he uses a tentacle to pat Gakushuu on the head and ruffle Karma’s hair, then pulls them both into a hug. Gakushuu looks vaguely haunted.

“Any idea you have to stop the world from ending?” Gakushuu says.

“It seems that I need to let my students kill me, before it’s too late,” Koro-sensei muses, “but I’d appreciate it if you let me have as long as I need to teach the students as a teacher should. From your stories, it seems that I must have done my job.”

Karma turns red. Gakushuu scoffs. “Fine, whatever. And I’ll be all mean and antagonistic for ‘character growth’,” he makes sarcastic air quotes, “just do what you gotta do.” 

It goes on. 

They talk, they do, they talk about what they hope and wish for the future if it ever comes, and the circumstances that bind them together, how long this will last and how long before they bend and break. However many times it would take. Asano's right, because the world ends many times over and each time is more beautiful than the last.

_r_ _ing, ring_

_ring, ring_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You've reached the end! Woohoo! That's it. I'm sorry.   
> Like I said, I wasn't originally going to post this... but this fic collection's whole purpose is for me to get undone works out of my system. Sorry if you hoped for closure! Hehe oops. Besides, I figured that if I (and my bff eatruittt here) have to know that this work exists, you guys have to, too. 
> 
> Like any other fic in this collection: if you would like to adapt it into something else or use it as an inspiration springboard for your own works, feel free! Do let me know, and I would be love to see what you guys come up with, and I'd be happy to link the fics.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: Baking Mishaps
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Gakushuu (POV), Gakuhou, Karma (Mention)
> 
> Tags: Post-canon, High School, Baking, Pre-relationship
> 
> Summary: Gakushuu tries his best to bake.

**Oops**

So Karma has the sweetest tooth of anyone Gakushuu has ever met, with the strawberry milk he downs like life elixir or the packets of sweets he has stashed on his person; Gakushuu doesn't understand  _ how  _ a living, breathing human being can safely consume this much sugar and survive.

It could be argued that Karma wasn't quite a normal human being, or that he wasn't immune to the consequences. That boy was on a  _ constant  _ sugar high it was exhausting to just be in his proximity.

But still.  _ Still. _

Still, Gakushuu finds himself sitting among miscellaneous kitchenware, because his heart hadn't quite got the memo. Baking was easy enough, he thinks, he'd learnt how to make cookies for charity bake sales before. Stirring batter he wonders how much sugar, exactly, should one put in for someone who loved sweets as much as Karma did, and he decides with twice the amount the recipe called for. 

The thing that slides out of the oven smells, unsurprisingly, like burnt sugar. It starts crumbling apart in his hands and a quick google search tells Gakushuu exactly why people adhere to recipes, but Gakushuu has faith and shoves the crumbs into his mouth.

Then spits it out and washes out his mouth with water. But he admits that his tastes in food are more… unique, so he breaks down his father’s office door. “I need you to taste-test something for me,” he demands.

Gakuhou is immediately on edge. “What?” His father says, eyes narrowing. 

Gakushuu shoves the plate with the misshapen lumps under Gakuhou's nose. "Eat this."

Very warily, Gakuhou takes a disfigured cookie from the proferred plate, bites into it, chews and swallows, and says, "this is the worst thing I've ever put in my mouth."

Back to the chopping board. He should use the recommended amount of sugar this time. He says so as much, and Gakuhou makes a face. 

"Why do you need a chopping board?" he asks. "What are you chopping? You're making cookies."

"It's just a metaphor," Gakushuu says.

"You mean drawing board?"

"Yeah, but I'm not drawing anything."

"You're not chopping anything either," Gakuhou points out. Gakushuu scowls at him.

There's a reason recipes exist, Gakushuu thinks, when his father makes an approving noise at his second batch. 

"It still sucks," Gakuhou tells him. A glowing compliment. 

Gakuhou watches his son agonize over the pot - boiling for a fresh batch - for a few moments. Then he asks, “what the fuck are you doing?”

“Has it not been obvious?” Gakushuu stirs and lifts the wooden spoon to scrutinize it, but then it becomes abundantly clear he doesn’t actually know what he’s supposed to be looking for. “I’m making cookies.”

Gakuhou waits a beat. Then two. Then he sighs longsufferingly. “ _ Why _ are you making cookies?”

Gakushuu whips around to glare at him. “Do I need a reason?”

Gakuhou stares pointedly at him. 

“It’s,” Gakushuu grumbles, ears red, “none of your business.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was almost the Karushuu Week 2020 Entry for "Sweets"! But as you can see, it was Not. (I don't think I posted an entry for that day.)


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: I forgot  
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]  
> Characters: Gakushuu (POV), Karma, Nagisa, Kayano, Gakuhou (mention)  
> Tags (?): Post-canon, Fluff and Humor, established relationship, slight sexual references  
> Summary: The classic "I have amnesia and I forgot we are married" fic
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't know how head injuries or amnesia work, okay? Don't @ me.

**Who knows what happened, not Karma**

"What," says Gakushuu, "the fuck."

Karma whips around, wide eyes. "I can explain."

In the kitchen sink, something spews black smoke. 

Gakushuu waits a beat, then two. No explanation arrives, and his eyebrow raise prompts no elaboration aside from a shrug.

"Karma," Gakushuu says.

"Are you mad at me?" Karma says immediately.

"I'm not mad at you," Gakushuu reassures. "I just want to know what happened."

Karma frowns. "I wanted to make you a cake," he mumbles.

"Karma," Gakushuu says now, confusion lacing his tone, "you're great at baking." Which offers no insight whatsoever on the blackened oven door and what seems to be ruined batter in the trash.

"Used to be," Karma says, even softer, and things click in Gakushuu's mind. 

Approximately one week ago, the man Gakushuu had chosen to spend his life with in a moment of weakness, had an argument with a stairwell. The stairs won. 

Karma Akabane, Gakushuu's endearingly idiotic husband of 3 years, who'd in the span of a single day lost about 4 years of his memory, was now Karma Akabane, Gakushuu's endearingly idiotic boyfriend. His father had pointed out that letting Karma know was not a big deal considering that the Karma of 4 years ago had already bought the ring, but Gakushuu didn't think he would get through the embarrassment of explaining the failure of a proposal.

("It was a wonderful proposal," Gakuhou had pointed out, "sure, there were a few… memorable moments but he still married you."

"You'll just show him the video," Gakushuu had hissed, red coloring his cheeks, "stay out of my marriage," and Gakuhou corrects, "boyfriend," the topic was dropped.)

The memory loss should be temporary, the doctor said, he wouldn't remember everything the way he did after a full recovery but that was more attributed to the natural tendency of humans to airbrush details as time passed. Gakushuu didn't think the sudden inability to bake was attributed to the temporary amnesia; Karma had no problems in the kitchen 4 years ago. It seemed more likely to be the general disorientation during recovery of head injuries.

He says so that much to Karma, who'd refused to let Gakushuu take part in any of the cleanup and then proceeded to sulk on the couch.

"You'll be back to being Gordon Ramsay soon, Kitten," Gakushuu says, thinking of Karma swearing at the eggs while whipping beautiful omelettes. Then abruptly remembers that "Kitten" was a recent development of only two years prior, and Karma turns the starkest shade of red. 

\--

Gakushuu pulls out a box he'd shut into one of the storage rooms.

"What's that?" Karma asks. Curiosity and the cat, after all. Gakushuu's pretty sure this would kill him.

"Sex toys," Gakushuu says nonchalantly, because he'd been married to his menace of a husband for 3 whole years and together with him for 4 before that, and they've pretty much gone and tried, well, everything. Karma, much less unphased, falls flat on his ass with a yelp.

"We've been together for 7 years, Karma," Gakushuu teases.

"It's been 3 for me," Karma mumbles. Gakushuu finally finds what he was looking for and brandishes it with a flourish: a pair cat-eared headbands.

"Why is that in… that box?" Karma says.

"Comes with a whole matching set," Gakushuu tells him, "like a cat tail b-"

"Don't tell me," Karma interrupts, turning his head away. Gakushuu laughs at him a little.

"This was why I started calling you Kitten," Gakushuu tells him. That's the main purpose of this box because he knew Karma hated being out of the dark about anything, even something as small as a cutesy nickname, and was too proud to ask about it. He's not going to try anything with this Karma for now because while they were technically the same age in a consenting relationship, this Karma was technically 4 years younger; that was weird for Gakushuu's taste, this was like a baby version of his husband that still got hilariously flustered when Gakushuu said the word "buttplug". 

"Oh," says Karma. The head tilt was a thoughtful one.

Cats, curiosity… cute. "There's a photo album in one of the drawers in my study," Gakushuu tells him. Carefully inspected for incriminating evidence of their marriage, of course, because Gakushuu refuses to have that conversation. He'd spotted Karma flipping through it a few days ago, and would no doubt be bursting with unasked questions. Karma does a poor job of concealing his excitement as he jumps to get it. 

\--

"Why don't you just tell him that you guys are married?" Nagisa says, obviously not understanding Gakushuu's distress. "You're already dating, and Karma planned to propose about 2 years in. He'd be delighted."

Akari, ever so observant, giggles. "You don't get it, Nagisa? He doesn't want to tell him about what happened during the proposal when-"

"Stop," Gakushuu says, ears already burning at the mere thought of it. God, how  _ mortifying _ . He was an embarrassment to his name.

"I thought it was really cute," Nagisa says, eyes sparkling.

"It was awful," Gakushuu groans. 

"He still married you," Akari says. “He loves you, even if you’re a dumbass.”

“Akari,” Nagisa chides softly, but he’s grinning. 

Gakushuu’s phone buzzes. He pulls it out of his pocket and accepts the call without glancing at the caller ID because there’s only 2 people who would dare contact him without invitation on his day off. One of them is Gakuhou, but he'd much sooner send Gakushuu an email than call him.

“Hey Kitten,” Gakushuu says. Both the normal version of his husband and the amnesic on refuse to admit that the nickname gets them all fuzzy inside, but Gakushuu knows. He hears Karma suck in a breath on the line, and across the table Akari waggles her eyebrows at him and mouths “speaker”!

Gakushuu flips her the bird. 

“Hey,” Karma says softly, “you still like chocolate cake, right?”

“Yes,” Gakushuu says, feeling warmth in his belly curling. He loved his husband’s sweets- “wait, are you trying to bake?”

“No,” Karma huffs. “I’m  _ buying  _ cake. You don’t have to sound so relieved.” 

He’s still sour about his temporary loss of culinary prowess and kicks up a fuss whenever it is as so hinted at, and raged when he realized Gakushuu was better at cooking than him now. There was only so much takeout Gakushuu could eat before he had to put his foot down and stop indulging his boyfriend in his whims, insufferable amnesiac spouse or not, Gakushuu didn't want to die of monosodium glutamate. 

"Karma,” Gakushuu sighs, flipping Akari off again and Nagisa smiles politely with a pleasant pink on his face. “You know I love you, whether or not you can bake.”

Karma’s sour reply goes, “I’d love myself more if I can bake.”

**Spoiler alert (well not really because this isn't a spoiler if it's all you're getting):**

**Karma proposed with a ring on a cupcake. Cute and adorable, right? Gakushuu thought so too, but he panicked and ate the entire thing, including the ring.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I see i haven't updated my incomplete fics collection for a while. If I'm not wrong, I wrote this sometime last year? I think.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: Hug  
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]  
> Characters: Karma (POV), Gakushuu, Ren, Gakuhou, Nagisa, Minor Characters  
> Tags (?): Alternate Universe, High School, Sort-of Established Relationship, OOC  
> Summary: What was almost a multichapter High School AU Karushuu that I actually wrote in the early days of me being in this fandom. Gakushuu is sad in this fic might as well be called soft Karushuu moments.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a hot minute since i added something to the incomplete fics collection, which is kind of funny given that I have so many.   
> And hey, fun fact: did you know that this was the Second fic I ever wrote? I wrote so much of it and I simply never completed it, and this would never have seen the light of day without this collection. You'll probably find this really similar to the tone of my earlier fics (although I'll have already edited this for posting).
> 
> There's no real reason I never finished this. I just didn't know how to end it, and as time went by I liked it less and less (the characters were OOC, the plot points fit in weird, I didn't know how to edit it), and finally I knew I'll never work on it again. 
> 
> Let me be cheesy for a while: there are so many people in this fandom right now and I love all of you! I was super lucky to have pretty good reception on my first fic. I guess I just want to say, sometimes you can be 5k words into an idea before you realize it isn't right and that's perfectly fine, setting something aside doesn't mean giving up.

**The google document for this fic was created 10 December 2018 at 06:22, holy shit**

Karma wouldn’t say they were the best of friends, nor were they just rivals to each other anymore - they were certainly something that Karma doesn’t quite understand and he’s pretty sure Gakushuu doesn’t either, but the other boy hasn’t tried to discuss the explicit definition of the relationship they had. 

Kayano was a secret romantic and said they were courting. Nagisa was a tease and called them weird with a soft tilt to his lips. The Virtuosos had collectively deemed them incredibly strange but also sort of cute. 

But whatever worked worked, right? 

Maybe?

\--

Their second year, first end-of-semester exams are a disaster. There’s no other way to describe it.

Karma comes in first place. “Guess I won again, eh, second-place?” Karma calls out from his seat at the back. 2-A is used to their banter, no one bats an eye.

Except Mikasa, who turns to Karma so frantically with wide-eyes that Karma pauses.

“What?” He mouths to her.

She holds up two fingers.

There’s a movement to his side that makes Karma turn. It’s Sakakibara, holding up 3, looking horrified.

Ren motions to Seo, who’s watching in stunned silence, and holds up 4 fingers in response.

2-A grows quiet. 

Fukijama, a seat away from Asano, very slowly holds up 5 fingers.

Karma looks around. No one holds up 6.

Fuck.

Asano, who had remained chillingly silent throughout this exchange, stands up. “You win some, you lose some,” he shrugs, voice smooth and nonchalant and completely in character with the chill and benevolent top student the rest of Kunugigaoka is used to seeing.

Sakakibara exchanges a wide-eyed look with Karma.

“I didn’t have a good nights sleep before exams,” Asano says as casually, which is perhaps what makes the situation scarier than it already was, “I’d have to work harder next semester. Congrats again, Akabane. And you too, Mikasa, your math has improved a lot!”

“Thank you,” Mikasa says meekly.

“Fuck,” Akari mouths really slowly, turning to make eye contact with every single one of the Virtuosos, and Karma.

Asano turns around to catch Karma’s eye, and grins. It’s an incredibly fake public grin that Asano reserves for when he’s absolutely exhausted.

\--

Karma approaches Asano at his locker at the end of the school day. 

“What are you staying back so late for?” Karma says, trying to keep his voice even.

“You know I had a student council meeting,” Asano replies, rummaging through his locker. His voice is devoid of emotion. 

Karma bites his lip. “Asano-”

Asano shuts the locker with a soft click. It’s insurmountably more terrifying that it would have been if he had slammed it instead. 

He turns to Karma, eyes glinting. “I’m going to ask you a question because you know me enough to give me an honest answer, and I know you won’t sugarcoat it.”

“Yeah?”

“What is wrong with me?”

Karma blinks at him, eyes wide. Asano is staring at him with a blank expression, gaze muted, head tilted. It reminds Karma of a whipped puppy. 

Karma gulps.

Asano remains silent, waiting for an answer.

“You’re,” Karma tries, “mean.”

He doesn’t want to go too far. There’s a lot of things he could say but there’s no telling what kind of mental state Asano is in right now. 

Asano’s expression or body posture doesn’t change. He stands there, oddly open and lax. 

“You’re,” Karma says, again, “arrogant?”

Asano tilts his head the other way. 

“And manipulative and you have twisted morals, but that’s because of your upbringing,” Karma says hurriedly, “not something you can change - I mean, you can change them, I meant as in, not something you really had a choice in.”

Asano looks at his hands briefly, then back up at Karma.

If this was a new interrogation technique, Karma hated it. 

“You’re selfish,” he blurts, “but like just a little. Sometimes you do a little, uhm, unethical stuff to win.”

Asano’s expression turns considering.

“You push yourself too hard!” Karma grips tightly onto his bag strap, “you should take a break. More breaks. You work too much, it’s not doing you any good.”

Asano tilts his head again.

“Stop that,” Karma snaps, flustered. 

“Thanks,” Asano says quietly. 

“Asano?” Karma’s brows furrow, “why did you ask me that?” 

“Self improvement,” Asano says mildly. He turns on his heel and starts walking away. Karma catches up. 

“What does that mean? Are you okay?” Karma asks.

Asano shrugs. 

Karma bites his lip. “I’ll see you after break ends, back in school,” he says. It comes out more of a sentence than a question. 

But more importantly, it’s a plea: don’t do anything stupid.

“Okay,” Asano says in acknowledgement. Karma deflates. 

Not the best answer he wanted but not the worst.

\--

Nagisa had given Karma an invitation to go out for ice cream about a week prior “to celebrate end of exams, what else?”, but Karma’s heart just isn’t in it anymore.

He’s happy to see Nagisa, he really is, but Asano’s behavior is making him worry. Sakakibara had added him to a chat group appropriately titled “WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING”, inclusive of the Virtuosos except Asano.

None of them know. They don’t seem very reassured by Karma’s interaction with him. 

“Is there something wrong?” Nagisa asks, eyes sharp, “you’re very distracted.”

“I got first,” Karma says absently.

Nagisa’s eyes brighten in pleasant surprise. “That’s great! Why the long face?”

“...Asano got sixth.”

Nagisa drops his spoon. 

“And he was acting super weird that it was actually scary,” Karma says, because now Nagisa had gotten him going, “like he asked me what’s wrong with him. God it was awful. He looked like someone killed his pet.”

“Does he have a pet?” Nagisa asks.

“No?” Karma says hysterically, “I don’t know. The Virtuosos are worried. God, I’m worried.”

“Do you want to go check up on him?” Nagisa asks, concerned. 

“I’ve already texted him several times,” Karma looks down at his phone, “he apparently told Sakakibara he was fine and just needed to be alone for like, a day or two.” He takes a bite of his ice cream. It’s not even sweet anymore.

“Do you think it’s his dad?” Nagisa says softly.

“Maybe?” Karma sighs, “I don’t know, it’s so. I don’t know.”

\--

At night when Karma’s walking home from the subway station, it starts raining. 

The drizzle turns into a downpour so abruptly that he’s drenched almost immediately, and hops into a corner convenience stall to buy an umbrella. Three minutes or so after that when Karma passes the park, he sees a figure hunched over on a park bench, sitting out in the rain. 

It’s not familiar. The sheer absurdity is what makes Karma pause at first and call out. “Hey! You okay?” 

The figure doesn’t respond, or if they did, it’s lost to the rain. 

Karma’s a genuinely concerned citizen so he takes a detour to check up on this man. It’s kind of like a slap in the face when he gets closer and realizes who it is.  He breaks into a jog and crouches in front of Asano, whose head is bowed and hands clasped in front of him.

“Hey,” Karma says gently, “hey, want to get out of this rain?”

Asano shivers. 

“Okay,” Karma tells him, “my place, okay? A couple of minutes away. Get you warm and wait the rain out.” He grips Asano’s shoulder and tucks the boy under his arm under the umbrella, not like his shirt is going to get any more wet than it already is anyways. 

Karma’s worried about the lack of resistance, and how cold Asano feels under his fingers.

When they get back Asano stands in Karma’s doorway, a sopping mess and looking as dead as he was in the afternoon. 

“I’ll get your floor dirty,” Asano says quietly.

Karma’s heart aches. “It’s not carpeted,” his shoulder slumps, “I’m already getting it dirty anyways. Can just clean it up later. You should take a hot shower and change into something dry before you catch a cold.”

Asano shrugs. Karma bundles him into a shower and strips him down to his underwear, and expectedly but not any less worryingly, there’s no resistance. 

It’s not the first time Karma sees him shirtless. He hesitates a little with Asano’s pants but the blond makes a decision for him and steps out of them. There’s nothing sexual about dragging a stool into the bathroom and sitting Asano down so he can shampoo his hair. 

It’s not the first time Asano’s wearing his clothes either. They’re both lean and about the same height. Karma throws a sweater at him and takes his own shower. When he gets out Asano is mopping his floor.

“Stop that,” Karma chides. Asano puts the mop back in his bucket. 

Karma drags him to the couch. Asano curls up by himself. 

“Are you hungry?” Karma asks, “you want soup? Or rice, or pasta? I can make something real quick-”

“What’s wrong with me?!” Asano says hotly.

Karma’s jaw drops. “Asano-”

“What’s wrong with me?!” Asano repeats, staring right at Karma. His eyes are red-rimmed, Karma realizes with a jolt.

“Nothing,” Karma says forcefully.

“Stop lying to me,” Asano hisses, “you’re the one fucking person who shouldn’t lie to me, I-”

Karma grits his teeth. “There’s a whole list of shit that’s wrong with you,” he says, “but it’s not your fault. You’re a kid and you had shitty parenting.”

“I didn’t ask for a psychoanalysis,” Asano spits, “tell me why you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you!” Karma yells, pained, “do you think I do?! I could never hate you, nobody hates you!”

“He does,” Asano says hoarsely, then shuts his mouth with a loud click. 

“Asano-”

Asano shakes his head and buries his face in his hands.

Karma deflates. Asano’s a scared little child, he thinks, he’s just a kid. They’re all kids. They don’t deserve to have the fate of the world on their shoulders or tyrannical beings for parental figures.

Karma slides next to him and pulls Asano onto his lap.

“What are you doing?” Asano whispers.

“Giving you a hug,” Karma whispers back. He wraps his arms around Asano and squeezes, and tucks his blond head under his chin. 

Asano shudders.

\--

They fall asleep like that, or rather Asano falls asleep like that, oddly. Karma has a crick in his neck.

At about one am Asano’s phone buzzes. It’s Asano Senior. Asano Junior’s dead asleep, exhausted, and Karma picks it up. 

“Where are you?” The voice over the phone says coldly. Karma feels a chill.

“With me,” he answers, trying to keep his voice steady.

There's a pause on the line. “Akabane,” Asano Senior says, “so he’s alive?”

Karma tastes something bitter on his tongue. “Yes,” he says.

“Hn,” Asano Senior says. The line goes dead.

Karma glares at the phone. 

He thinks about his bed upstairs, then settles into the couch. It’s not a cold day despite the rain.

\--

“Hey sleepyhead,” Karma says, pressing a soft kiss to Asano’s forehead when he stirs. 

Asano blinks wearily. “Akabane?”

“I made breakfast,” Karma says, “you should text the Virtuosos. They’re worried.”

Asano sits up on the couch, running a hand through his bedhead. He looks at his phone and scrolls through something. “My dad called,” he says, expression carefully clear.

“...yeah,” Karma says cautiously.

Asano blinks at his phone, then seems to make a decision and starts typing something. Karma chews his bottom lip. 

The pancakes are still warm on the dining table. Asano eats like he’s starving, and Karma wonders if he’d eaten yesterday. He finally checks the notifications he’d been ignoring in lieu of updates from the Asano Watch chat group.

Several people from 2-A he normally keeps a cordial relationship with have reached out to ask about Asano’s wellbeing. It’s a little touching, peers willing to lend a hand if needed, but Karma doesn’t know how to reply. Nagisa had sent him a follow-up text with concern. 

Asano’s phone buzzes. He takes the call faster than Karma can see the caller identity, and Asano hunches further in his seat. He’s silent through most of it, nods once, then says, “okay,” subduedly, and hangs up.

“Who was that?” Karma asks.

“Dad’s coming to pick me up in a bit,” Asano tells him tiredly.

“Oh,” Karma says.

“Where did you leave my clothes?” Asano asks. 

“Should be done in the dryer,” Karma says, “finish your pancakes. I’ll get them.”

Asano doesn’t finish his pancakes. Karma’s disappointed but not surprised, and he looks pained at Asano who’s already fidgeting by the door with his head bowed.

Karma walks over and hugs him. Asano’s stiff and he’s holding himself way too awkwardly, and Karma tugs his arms into place and runs his fingers through Asano’s hair and down his spine and then Asano all but melts into Karma’s arms, burying his face in his shoulder and squeezing back as tightly.

There are lines in novels where kisses are described as forever in a second, and Karma thinks they can be applied to hugs. 

The doorbell rings. Asano jumps.

Karma hands him the bag with his clothes and purses his lips when Asano settles into his poster-boy farce, with his back just a little straighter and eyes a little harder and smile a little sharper, and when he looks from his father to Karma, all Karma feels is an icy chill. 

“Thanks for letting me stay the night,” Asano says smoothly with a smile that’s too practiced to be sincere, which sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard.

“No problem,” Karma chokes out. Asano looks so boredly at him and it’s kind of like being stabbed. Asano Senior’s gaze flickers towards him in mild interest, then shares whatever seems to be cordial small talk with his own son the way one would to a business acquaintance, not that Karma is really registering any of it with his blood pumping in his ears.

What he does hear is an innocent sounding “see you at school after break ends” from Asano. Karma kind of wants to throw up.

\--

Karma texts Asano throughout the day, and he gets left on read, but there’s always a little twinge he gets when Asano comes online, albeit briefly.

He gets his first reply at night when he snaps a picture of the pile of books at the foot of his bed. The little speech bubble indicating typing appears and disappears, then a message pops up. “Miss you.”

Karma sucks in a breath. “Miss you too,” he types.

The speech bubble taunts him a little, then disappears altogether.

Karma chokes a little. He dials Sakakibara without thinking.

“Hey,” Sakakibara sounds weary when he picks up, “what’s wrong, Akabane?”

“I don’t know,” Karma says, “I’m. Just.”

“Yeah,” there’s a sound like the rustling of pages over at his end, then the sound of a book closing. Then, “how are you feeling?”

“Awful,” Karma admits.

“Yeah,” Sakakibara sighs, “it hits you hard the first time. You get, well, I won’t say used to it.”

Karma’s heart is beating erratically. “He’s just a kid.”

“You think he cares? We are all kids. A-Class, E-class, heck, we were all 13 when we started here.”

“How old,” Karma says, stops. “Do you think?”

“Five,” Sakakibara says softly, decisively. Karma knows he won’t give any more than that, which means it must be something Asano has to tell him of his own volition.

“He doesn’t,” Sakakibara continues hesitantly, “hit Gakushuu, or anything like that. They don’t, nothing physical, except for.”

“I heard about that,” Karma says.

“Yeah,” Sakakibara sounds staticy over the phone. “I don’t know what happened this time. I can usually guess but I don’t know.”

Karma’s grip tightens around his phone. “Yeah,” he says.

\--

Karma doesn’t hear much from Asano in the tense week that follows. The rest of the Virtuosos don’t either, and Sakakibara always updates the chat group whenever he gets a morning text from Asano.

Karma doesn’t want to say he’s jealous. He gets the night ones, which is always some variation of “I’m okay” that Karma can taste the bitterness of. “Still alive,” comes on wednesday, which makes Karma’s heart stop a little. “Hug,” comes on friday, which leaves Karma staring at his phone until the battery dies. 

On saturday morning he goes to Asano’s house, fuck whatever the Virtuosos were saying about giving him space, fuck Asano Senior and his awful parenting. 

He keeps that train of thought right up until he’s at the front doorstep of Asano’s house. He’s been in there only once.

Karma doesn’t know what to expect, but it’s not Asano sitting cross-legged in his living room and spinning a wooden top.

Asano doesn’t look up but Karma knows that he knows that Karma walked in. 

“Hey,” Karma says, hands in his pockets, “sorry I came unannounced.” He doesn’t say he was worried but it doesn’t take a genius.

The top falls on it’s side. Asano picks it up delicately and twirls it in his fingers, and then it’s spinning again.

“Thanks,” Asano says softly. 

Karma sits next to him. ”Miss you,” he echoes Asano’s first text.

Asano stares at him impassively, then his face melts into something soft and warm and hurt. Karma lunges forward and hugs him tight. Asano hugs him back and lets himself get pulled onto Karma’s lap and starts trembling, and Karma doesn’t ever want to let him go.

\--

The second semester starts off on a low note. 

Asano steps into class the same way he walked out of it a week before, head high and eyes bright and smiling, and everyone smiles back and makes polite conversation but there’s a different atmosphere about him now, like 2-A is expecting Asano to snap like a rubber band.

The rest of the school hears about it, of course, Asano Gakushuu dropping out of top 5 in one exam. It makes everyone give him wary glances and awkward smiles, and Karma knows it’s making Asano frustrated. 

“Oi, Asano,” Karma calls out. It’s incredibly normal and 2-A is used to their banter and everyone turns to stare.

Asano turns back on his chair, eyebrow quirked curiously. It’s always amusing to Karma to see how open Asano lets his body language pretend to be, but right now Asano reads like a closed book.

Karma flushes a little, because he hasn’t thought of anything to say. Asano’s gaze turns questioning, then amused, then gives Karma a little quirk of his lips that makes Karma’s hear go ba-dump. 

He’s fucking cute, Karma thinks. Someone snickers.

Asano tilts his head a little, and bats his eyelashes. He’s in a playful mood, or rather he seems like he’s in a playful mood. Whether or not it’s still an act in an attempt to look normal Karma can’t really tell, but playful Asano is monumentally more attractive than mopey Asano and Karma kind of wants to play along. 

“Is there something you needed?” Asano asks, voice curling like smoke. Karma flushes a little deeper.

“...had a nice break?” Karma tries, sounding as awkward as he feels. Sakakibara, sitting in front of Asano and turned around to watch the proceedings, gives Karma full view of a very exasperated eye roll.

“Same old, same old,” Asano shrugs nonchalantly, which in itself is already a red flag. “How about you?”

Karma’s mind is blank. He spent his week worrying about this stupid dumbass. 

Oh what the heck. He’s pretty sure the whole school already knows there’s something going on between him and Asano, ranging from heated rivalry to actually best friends to budding romance to having secret trysts in hidden locations in school. Regardless, his weird gay crush isn’t unnoticed by any means even if they’re actually inching forward at a snail’s pace of a relationship. and Asano is either a really slow mover or the most oblivious fucking rock of a human being to ever grace this planet.

Karma has a short moment of panic. They never really discussed this so there was still that tiny bit of a chance that Asano thought this was some platonic hangout they’ve been doing. Biggest no-homo.

“I spent all week thinking about you,” Karma shrugs like it’s no big deal.

There’s a collective “aw” noise. Asano’s gaze turns soft in a way that Karma knows is real. Asano looks way but there’s a pink to his cheeks that wasn’t previously there. 

This boy better be reciprocating his massive gay crush or Karma was going to seduce him and kick his ass, not necessarily in that order.

\--

Asano  acts the exact same way he does every day and Karma still can’t get a read on him, and the Virtuosos don’t seem any less reassured despite everything going seemingly back to normal. 

The second week of school when Asano is idly chatting with Koyama and Seo, Karma slides up to them. Asano leans in a little to his side instinctively. 

Karma purses his lips. He replies an half-hearted “alright” to Seo’s “how are you doing?” and brushes his shoulder against Asano’s. 

Asano presses into the contact. Araki comes over and looks at Karma like he knows what Karma is trying to test. He stands over on Asano’s other side. Karma feels Asano shift his weight towards him.

Araki discreetly shoots Karma a look.

\--

Nagisa is endlessly amused and slightly concerned at the predicament that Karma has gotten himself in, on what he dubs the White-Knight-Situation.

“You have to tread carefully,” Nagisa points out, “as much as you think you know, you still have a foreign perspective of things. You might push too hard and go somewhere you’re not supposed to and Asano will shut you out and I don’t know if you can get back again.”

“I’m not trying to push,” Karma argues, and Nagisa gives him an unimpressed look.

“You both have estranged parents,” Nagisa says, “but very different situations. Whatever works for you may backfire hard for him.”

“I don’t plan on trying to whisk him away on a horse into a sunset with a happily ever after,” Karma looks down, “I don’t think I can anyhow, and Asano would probably hate it if I tried to fight his battles, no matter the outcome.”

“Be his support group,” Nagisa says, “emotional support. Have you talked to Sakakibara or the other Virtuosos about it? They’re Asano’s friends since middle school.”

“Sakakibara says he has no clue what’s happening,” Karma stirs his coffee, “and they’re all saying I need to do whatever I keep doing but give Asano space.”

“You have your answer,” Nagisa pats his arm, “you’re helping him, being you, and he’ll let you in when he’s ready.”

\--

It’s not until tomorrow that Karma decides to do something. Asano’s standing by his locker and rifling through it contents and Karma goes up to him. It feels a little like deja vu.

“Akabane,” Asano greets, more subdued without an audience but light enough.

Karma waits for Asano to find the book he’s looking for, then shuts the locker door with a soft click. 

“What are you-”

Karma wordlessly reaches forward. Asano stands, shocked, tense the way he is every single time Karma hugs him, and more because this is their school and not either of their houses, as if hugging in public was something to be scorned at. 

Asano tries to pull away and Karma squeezes him harder, starts running his fingers up and down his back and stroking his hair. Asano’s head drops onto his shoulder. 

Some people are watching now, maybe three or four who have milled around in the hallway. When Asano stops struggling it’s obvious how much he’s actually shaking, and Karma presses his lips to his temple. 

Asano wraps his arms around Karma’s torso and pushes his nose into the crook of his neck. The book is somewhere on the ground now. Asano grows lax and they end up sinking to the ground, legs tangled, still hugging. 

“Akabane,” Asano murmurs into his shoulder. 

Karma kisses him lightly on the head.

\--

That sort of starts a chain or breaks a dam or something like that, like suddenly it hits the student body that the ex-principal’s son wasn’t a super workaholic perfect being of sorts, like he was actually human. 

Maybe before people had spoken to Asano like they put him on a pedestal. If getting hugged in the hallways was what everyone considered a public breakdown then he was still on high steps of some sort, but within reach. 

And maybe it’s also the breaking point for Asano, who for once drops his smile in class and lets himself slouch over and sound tired, if only a little bit. 

Karma walks in on Shimizu offering Asano a teabag, saying something about stress relief, and offering her thermos. Asano takes a delicate sip and says something back. 

Shimizu smiles at Karma and steps back to make a space for him when he approaches. It’s still a little weird to see how most people have automatically accepted him as an unofficial part of the Virtuosos. 

Technically, grades-wise, even Asano was’t part of the Virtuosos anymore. 

Asano leans into Karma’s side. 

“Are we still on friday?” Shimizu is asking.

“Sure,” Asano says, “like you said, stress relief.”

“Only you would find a study session stress relief,” Shimizu laughs, “Mikasa is bringing brownies. She’s practicing for her brother’s birthday and has been feeding me baked goods every day.”

“Akabane’s a great baker,” Asano tells her, which surprises Karma. 

“Oh?” Shimizu’s eyes widen. “What do you bake?”

“A lot of things,” Karma says, “I can do brownies.”

“My favorite are his macarons,” Asano says, voice uncharacteristically fond. Karma’s fingers curl at the nape of his neck, which is warm.

“You should’ve said,” Karma says, a little abashedly, “I could have made some.”

“You said they take too much time and effort,” Asano shrugs. 

“It’s not too much effort for you,” Karma says, blushing a little.

“You two are so cute,” Shimizu smiles at them. Karma’s ears turn redder. 

“How’s Kobayashi?” Karma brings up. Asano looks amused at his sudden change of subject. Shimizu grins knowingly at him.

“Wish he’d make macarons for me,” she sighs. 

Karma doesn’t think he could blush harder but he certainly feels it. 

He does end up spending a whole afternoon on macarons, scrapping two batches of frosting because Asano doesn’t like things that are too sweet. When he brings them to school on Thursday, Shimizu makes a little “aww” noise and starts whispering, which makes most of 2-A look at him warmly for the rest of the day, but Asano looks so genuinely touched that Karma thinks a little bit of embarrassment is worth it.

\--

Sakakibara invites him out for coffee on Sunday. Karma keeps a slightly more affable relationship with him than the other three Virtuosos but the invitation is still out of the blue.

“-don’t want him to get hurt,” Sakakibara is saying rather sternly.

Karma takes a long sip of his frappe. “Is this a shovel talk?” 

“No,” Sakakibara says.

“Sounds like one to me,” Karma says. He’s not rather threatened by Sakakibara but it’s a well-meaning gesture.

“Were you listening to me?” Sakakibara sounds exasperated.

“I like Asano, he likes me back, don’t hurt him or you’ll drown me in a ditch?” Karma says.

“Yes,” Sakakibara says impatiently, “but more of a how you need to start working around his dad.” 

“What, does Asano Senior not like me?” Karma raises a cool eyebrow, like he actually cares about what that man thinks.

Sakakibara looks shifty. “I think he actually does like you,” he says, voice uncertain, “which, I’m not sure what that means for you and Asano, actually.”

Karma is intrigued. “He likes me because I’m top of the cohort,” he guesses.

“Possibly,” Sakakibara says, “but I don’t think that’s entirely it.” 

“Anyways,” he continues, “your track record for opposing authority isn’t, well, the best. Like I was saying, maybe it would seem like a good idea to antagonize Asano Senior, but whatever happens, you’re not the one that’s going to be suffering from the negative repercussions, and I think you’re smart enough to understand that.”

Karma bristles, but he knows Sakakibara has a point. “What, we just let him abuse-”

“I’m not saying that,” Sakakibara frowns, “but none of us are in the best position to help him.”

“What are you suggesting? Wait it out till college?” Karma snaps, “we don’t know what’s going to happen before then. Something clearly happened last month that fucked him up and we still don’t know what-”

“You’re going to get him killed,” Sakakibara hissed.

Karma deflates. “I-”

Sakakibara’s eyes soften. “Just don’t do anything stupid,” he says gently.

\--

Karma makes more macarons and woos Asano with sweets and banter and gentle presses. Karma thinks he doesn’t make it too obvious, just a little tug here and a press of his knee to his leg, slight leaning in and touching of their arms if they’re standing close. He starts to think Asano chases the contact, shifting to make sure they’re touching, when sitting at the cafeteria or in the library or standing by the lockers. 

“Come over?” Karma says, swinging an arm widely over Asano’s shoulders like a bad move in a cinema, while they’re sitting on a bench in the cafeteria. 

“Kay,” Asano replies, leaning into Karma’s chest, slowly scrolling through a news article on his phone. 

Karma tugs Asano closer. He looks around, nobody is paying them any mind, school delinquent and star student practically cuddling. Karma slings his leg over Asano’s thighs, which earns him a bemused look and an eye roll. Karma snakes himself into Asano’s arms. 

“Hi,” Karma says. 

“Hello,” Asano says back. 

Karma presses his lips to Asano’s neck and hums.

“We’re at school,” Asano murmurs, low and embarrassed. 

“Mhm,” Karma says, and boldly starts mouthing along his jawline. He doesn’t mean to go far but Asano shivers and ducks his head. “You’re a menace,” he says, and Karma grins against his ear.

Later in the afternoon Karma drags Asano onto his couch and resumes his ministrations, and Asano lets himself loosen. “You’re sweet,” Karma says, after sucking a hickey on Asano’s neck.

Asano is non-verbal, but he hasn’t been talking much in private company recently. His face is red and he replies by pushing his nose into Karma’s hair. 

Karma laughs. He kisses Asano on the neck, then the jaw, then the cheek, then the side of his lips. 

“You’re so cute,” Karma coos. Asano blushes.

\--

They haven’t kissed on the lips, which is a little weird when Karma thinks about it, considering how much concealer he’s using to cover up the red marks along his neck and collarbone. 

He brings that up to Kabaya, who naturally laughs in his face for a good three minutes, who then texts Rukiyo about it so she takes a bathroom break to come to the rooftop to laugh about it in Karma’s face for another three minutes, then runs back to Math. 

“You two are fucking adorable,” Kabaya grins, “why are you being so weird about it? You’ve been dating for like, more than half a year. If you want to kiss him on the mouth, just kiss him on the mouth.”

“We’re not dating,” Karma mutters, face heated. 

“I will throw this shoe at you,” Kabaya says just as cheerfully, “if you try and lie to me in my face again.”

\--

“Kiss the boy, coward,” Kayano says.

“Listen-” 

“Coward,” Kayano repeats.

“Well you didn’t kiss Nagisa either,” Karma says, blushing. Asano raises an eyebrow when he catches the end of Karma’s side of the conversation. 

“Kayano,” Karma mouths, motioning to his phone. “Well,” Kayano’s voice sounds flustered, “It took me six months. It’s been six months for you, yes?”

“But-”

“And you two are like, official. Nagisa and I weren’t even dating.”

“We’re not official,” Karma hisses, putting his hand over the receiver, 

There was a pause, then a “Karma, I’ll kill you.”

“Listen,” Karma says, “we-”

“Karma, I’ll kill you,” Kayano repeats, “slowly.”

Asano tilts his head questioningly. He nudges Karma with his knee. 

Karma shrugs helplessly at him. “Kayano,” he whines, “we’re,” he side-eyes Asano, who seems to be back engrossed in his book, and then whispers, “not boyfriends, we haven’t talked about it or anything, I don’t know if he wants to be official or just go along with what we have.”

“And what do you have?” Kayano says so deadpan that Karma can imagine her eye-roll, “no-homo making out?”

“Definite homo,” Karma insists so forcefully that Asano puts his book down and stares. Karma blushes and averts his eyes. “Should I ask?”

“Well you two need to talk about it eventually,” Kayano points out. 

“Is now a good time?” Karma asks nervously, “with everything that’s going on.”

“Stuff’s always going on,” Kayano tells him, “he’s better now, right? Getting all As again?” 

Karma shrugs helplessly. “I guess? I don’t know.”

Asano, lightning quick, plucks Karma’s phone out of his hands. Karma yelps and lunges for it, and Asano rolls away and kicks Karma square in the face. 

“Kayano,” Asano greets, and twists out of Karma’s grasp. Asano seems thoughtful at whatever Kayano is saying, nods once, and then stares at Karma intensely. Karma’s eyes widen, and he makes a desperate grab and pulls Asano and pins him down, who drops the phone, then flips them over so Asano is on top. 

Asano leans in, brushes his lips just barely over Karma’s, and smirks. 

Karma’s heart is beating fast. Why is he like this? They’ve made out even more heatedly before that such a simple action shouldn’t be affecting him like this, yet-

“Idiot,” Asano says, breath ghosting over Karma’s mouth. 

“You’re the idiot,” Karma counters lamely. 

Asano hums, looking amused. Then he rolls to the side, cups Karma’s face with both hands, then kisses Karma with closed lips, eyes fluttering shut. Karma closes his eyes and makes a blind grab for Asano’s collar or jacket or something, and pulls, and kisses back.

“It suddenly went quiet,” Kayano’s voice rings out, someone had pushed the speaker button in the scuffle, “are you guys making out?”

Karma manages to give a muffled yes, which gets punctuated by Kayano’s squeal. “Bye bye!” She says, “have fun!” The call cuts and Asano looks rather pleased with himself.

“Idiot,” Asano repeats again.

“Are we boyfriends?” Karma blurts out.

“You’re so fucking stupid,” Asano rolls his eyes in exasperation, and pops the button on Karma’s collar. 

\--

Karma needs to tell someone. He needs to tell the world.

The text he sends Nagisa gets a reply of “congratulations” so sarcastically he could feel it through his phone screen, and Karma snorts to himself. 

When he texts Kayano, she sends him a meme where someone used one of her unimpressed-face pictures as a reaction image. 

So logically, Karma tells Sakakibara. “Asano and I are boyfriends,” he says very solemnly. 

Sakakibara squints at him. “...okay?”

“I just thought you would like to know,” Karma clarifies.

“You two have been dating for half a year,” Sakakibara actually looks genuinely concerned, “are you okay? Did you hit your head?”

“We’ve been dating,” Karma explains, “but we’ve haven’t been boyfriends. Now we’re officially boyfriends.”

“What?” Sakakibara looks incredulous, “Six months ago you asked him out, he said yes, and you two started dating, yes?”

“Well back then I asked him on a date,” Karma says, “I didn’t ask him to be my boyfriend.”

“And judging by this conversation, you asked him to be your boyfriend yesterday?” Sakakibara guesses.

“You’re so smart,” Karma beams at him, “I did. I’m no longer single.”

“You haven’t been single for half a year,” Sakakibara says, and Karma doesn’t refute that because it’s true. 

Karma tells the rest of the Virtuosos, who give him variations of “...wow, really?” so Karma tells Rukiyo.

“...wow, really?” She says, not looking up from her phone. 

“Yes,” Karma says, satisfied. He’s so happy that everyone’s sarcastic responses doesn’t bring down his mood.

\--

People start milling out of the classroom that the council uses as the meeting room, and many give Karma knowing looks and snickers. Karma can see Asano idly chatting with the student council president, a 3-B girl named Aiya Muramasa. Muramasa makes eye contact with Karma, says something to Asano, and Asano turns around. 

Suddenly the giggles from the other students make sense.

Asano is wearing the shirt where Karma had scribbled “Asano Gakushuu is my boyfriend!!!” on the right sleeve after P.E. with a washable marker, then ran off while Asano yelled at him from the locker room. He’d expected Asano to scrub it off and wear a wet shirt for the rest of the day, just wear his P.E. uniform, or more sensibly wear another shirt that he probably keeps in his locker for emergencies like this. 

**The idea was supposed to be that the Asanos had some big family confrontation the day before the examinations, and as expected - it went terribly. Gakushuu is very OOC in this and I think this is probably the start of my sad-boy-Gakushuu phase, haha.**

**He'll eventually go back to his snippy snarky, high-achieving self we all know and love! He'll tell his best friend and new boyfriend about his family troubles soon enough.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another reason I posted this is because I saw the recent Karushuu fics and I felt the mood for some more. I didn't have a fic ready to go so I figured I'll post an old one. This came to mind. 
> 
> For those who don't know them: Kabaya and Rukiyo are the First OCs I have ever created (I am unfairly attached to them). They're Karma's high school friends I made for my first fic because I didn't want him to be lonely/I wanted Karma to have a separate social circle apart from Gakushuu. The other OC names debut here.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: Regrets  
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]  
> Characters: Gakushuu (POV), Karma, Gakuhou, Minor Characters  
> Tags (?): Alternate Universe, Post-canon, High School, Fake dating, Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics  
> Summary: If it's any consolation I winced when I typed this out as well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, about 2 years ago I actually said, "what if I wrote an A/B/O fic"? (It's such a weird and popular genre okay it crossed my mind) And I never did.  
> Well I never published it, that is. I had decided that it will never see the light of day and I shall wallow in my shame forever, and also I had writer's block, shelved the fic, forgot about it for a bit, then saw it again but have already lost interest.:   
> Anyways today I have decided to unleash suffering upon the world.   
> Let us begin
> 
> (Just a quick PSA that "a/b/o" (without the slashes) is an ethnic slur so do split apart the letters when you type it!)

**Let's literally never speak of this fic again**

Gakushuu goes into his first heat at age sixteen. He wakes up sweating bullets. “Fuck,” he says.

Gakushuu attempts to get out of bed, or rather he attempts to get out of bed, succeeding in getting his ankle caught around his blankets and stumbling two steps forward before going down with a crash. The alarm clock that was on his desk and now on the floor glares “04:00” rather unforgivingly and it’s far too early to be using his brain, which feels like the equivalent of mashed banana. 

So he does what any clear-headed person might do if they found themselves nursing the world’s most embarrassing bruise on their forehead. He trudges out of his room and makes it down the hallway to throw open his father’s door in an unnecessarily extravagant fashion, blanket now extracted from his ankles and wrapped around his shoulders like a cape,

and then scowls, because there was no audience to his dramatics. He hears the shower running.

“Fuck,” Gakushuu says. He flops down on his father’s bed, and whatever overflow of Omega hormones are making him feel soft and squishy inside , and he finds himself burrowing into the sheets. He doesn’t bother to get up or acknowledge Gakuhou when he enters the room, but he does open his eyes when Gakuhou flicks him behind the ear.

“Hi,” Gakushuu says, peeking out from under the duvet. 

Gakuhou frowns at him. “What are you doing here?” 

Gakushuu blinks once, twice. “Smell anything different?” 

Gakuhou makes a show of lightly sniffing the air. “You’re in heat,” he remarks casually, going about straightening out the sheets that Gakushuu had scrunched up with a furrow in his brow. Gakushuu eagerly waits for the other boot to drop.

Beat one, beat two.

“Wait.”

The reaction is immensely satisfying and Gakushuu lets himself enjoy it. Once Gakuhou stops freaking out, he proceeds to the stage of denial and says, “you? Omega? How are  _ you  _ an  _ Omega _ ?”

Gakushuu may have found out about his designation not 10 minutes ago but he’d already owned it, and something in his father’s tone makes him bristle. He was going to be the best Omega that ever lived. “What’s wrong with being an omega?” He snaps, “if you want to say something about me, say it to my face.”

\--

Gakushuu doesn’t know when he falls asleep but he wakes up that morning at 10am in a panic. There’s a note on the bedside table informing him that Gakuhou had informed the school of his absence, and weighing it down is Gakushuu’s phone blinking with what seems to be a hundred or so notifications. 

He ignores all of them first because he’s  _ starving _ . Gakushuu heads downstairs and immediately gets flanked by his two excited housekeepers, whom no doubt has heard the news from his father, who was clearly incapable of shutting the fuck up.

Tamiko and Husare are all betas with Omega family. They spend breakfast imparting what they deem as necessary pearls of wisdom, which Gakushuu has to begrudgingly admit are incredibly helpful for navigating his headspace that feels very much like a wet sponge cake. 

He finally checks his messages, which are mostly from the Virtuosos and a few classmates checking up on him. He replies the rest with variations of “thank you, I’m fine” and then scrolls through the chat group he has with the Virtuosos, mostly discussing the assignments for the day thus far and conspiracy theories on whatever happened to Gakushuu.

“I’m alive, idiot,” Gakushuu types.  “I presented as omega this morning,” he taps out, and then quickly turns off read receipts to watch the drama unfold. The highlights include ever tactful Araki’s incessant spamming, a voice recording of Koyama and Seo screaming into the microphone for three minutes, and a frantic soliloquy from Ren written in the form of a japanese epic.

Gakushuu receives another text, this time from one Karma Akabane, and Gakushuu feels the stone in his stomach drop. Because Akabane had presented as an Alpha at the start of this year and was the most annoying person Gakushuu had had the displeasure of meeting, and back even when he had thought both of them were Alphas, Gakushuu had a teeny weeny almost inconceivable crush on him.

This, Gakushuu thinks irrationally, is all Akabane’s fault.

“Hey,” says the text, “you okay?”

Completely innocent. A normal text that pretty much his entire class sent him. Gakushuu wants to throw his phone out the window.

\--

“Nobody in Kunugigaoka is good enough for you,” Gakuhou declares.

“I’m sorry?” Gakushuu says, wondering where their conversation about porridge has went.

“The Alphas,” Gakuhou clarifies. “All of them are idiots.” Then, “you’re better than all of them, your designation hardly matters. If anyone steps out of line, kick their ass.”

That’s possibly the nicest thing Gakuhou had ever said to him.

\--

Gakushuu wakes up again in the middle of the night, sweating in his air condition and feeling uncomfortable as hell. He doesn’t knock over his alarm clock again and it blares in bright lights 03:00 in the morning, so Gakushuu groans to himself and lugs a pillow over to kick down his father’s door.

Because Gakuhou is literally insane, he’s just getting ready to go on his morning jog, and he stares slack-jawed at Gakushuu blinking blearily in his doorway.

“What,” says Gakuhou.

“No,” says Gakushuu. He clambers onto the bed like he was still four years old and rolls up in the blankets, and takes great pleasure in messing up the neatly folded sheets. Then latches onto his father’s arm and bites down hard on his palm.

Gakuhou, to his credit, doesn’t even wince. Slowly extricates his hand from Gakushuu’s teeth and says, “are you going to be this clingy until your heat is over?”

Gakushuu's brain is a nice simmering pot of soup now. If this were any other occasion, he would be absolutely mortified how quickly being in his father's proximity calms him. Once his heat is over he's going to have to give himself a pep talk and remind himself whose side he's on. The only consolation he has is the fact that he seems to have an equivalent effect on his father as well, making him far more agreeable and - dare he say - cuddly.

Gakushuu he falls asleep anyways, and he wakes up at 6 am with his father flicking through a news article on his phone and absently patting Gakushuu’s hair. 

Ugh. Pheromones. 

\--

At school, Gakushuu lets the cacophony of questions rush over him, occasionally confirming that yes, he is an Omega, and yes, he presented yesterday, that’s why he missed school. 

For the first time he really notices that everyone seated around him was an Alpha. He drops this as a really casual comment, just a simple observation, really, and this sparks a rather aggressive fight over seating arrangements and whatnot which Gakushuu honestly didn’t mean to start.

Everyone is yelling now.  Ren and Seo have been backed into a corner and Koyama and Araki pat Gakushuu’s shoulder consolingly. When will the goddamn bell ring? Maybe Gakushuu should have gotten to school later if he knew this much drama would start.

And then Akabane walks in, blinks at the absolute chaos, and scowls. T he room falls silent. 

It’s kind of impressive how he got everyone to shut up so quietly. That came with being the most powerful Alpha in the room, Gakushuu supposes, and his dangerous track record. He'll beat everyone in a fight. Except for Gakushuu, who maintains that designation or not, he can still kick ass. 

Akabane looks irritated. It's understandable, Gakushuu's irritated too. Akabane usually slinks into a quiet classroom and retreats to his seat in the back so he can use his phone before class starts, but there's a spanner thrown in those plans now. He scans the room and his gaze falls on Gakushuu, smirks and opens his mouth to say something like, “how can you say you’re a stronger Alpha than I am if you can’t even get your classmates to behave?” but then he pauses, sniffs the air, and his expression turns to one of confusion.

“Who,” Akabane starts. 

Gakushuu’s kind of annoyed that he’s one of the youngest in class now. How come Akabane was five days older and presented months ago? “Guess all that talk about being a genius is just for show, huh, who’s the only person in class that hadn’t presented yet?”

Akabane’s jaw drops. “You? Omega?” He says incredulously.

“Yeah, me, got a problem with that?” Gakushuu crosses his arms. He knows this is a  _ bad idea  _ and he can’t blame Akabane because they’re used to sizing each other up and so it’s pure reflex that Akabane growls back.

Gakushuu really, really hates Biology. Alpha and Omega and cycles and dominance and whatever, Gakushuu squeaks a little to that growl, on pure instinct mind you. But that launches a chain of everyone else's instinctual reactions.

The shouting resumes. And after a few painful seconds of mutual mess Akabane shouts “Everybody shut up!” at the top of his lungs, and everyone quietens down almost immediately. 

Everyone turns to look at Akabane.

Akabane looks hopelessly out of depth. He's not the one who usually gives direction, and he still doesn't know what the first shouting match was about. He turns to look at Gakushuu.

"We were having a discussion on changing the seating arrangement," Gakushuu says.

Akabane wrinkles his nose. "Why should I care?"

One step forward, two steps back. Karma says he doesn't care about the stakes, so apparently that means it's a free market now. There is, indeed, more shouting.

Eyes wide, Akabane glances around the room. Ah shit, Gakushuu knows this look, he's thinking of just skipping class today. Gakushuu doesn't blame him, but - oh hell - he needs Akabane for conflict diffusion. He sees their homeroom teacher watching the commotion from behind their classroom door, but she's a little Beta lady, Gakushuu doesn't blame her. Quick, think.

Before Akabane bolts, Gakushuu bounds up to him and  _ purrs. _

It works like a charm. Somebody screams. Akabane trips over his own feet and falls flat on his ass. 

Gakushuu snickers. 

“W-what?” Akabane demands, face as red as his hair. He gets up to his feet and Gakushuu delights in watching him squirm, just as everyone watches in rapt attention. 

“Can you do me a favor _? _ ” He practically sings, leaning closer. 

Akabane jolts back like he touched a live wire, and turns impossibly redder.  “What do you want?” He spits out, looking frustrated. 

“Change the seating arrangement for me?” Gakushuu says. He doesn’t need to be an Omega or listen to his father’s ramblings to know he’s attractive, and he gives Akabane the smile which he knows  works . 

“Fine, fine! D-do whatever you want!” Akabane shrieks. “Change it, change it!” 

Heh. 

\--

Gakuhou is the most unbearable of unbearable-ness. “I heard about what happened in school."

“And what picture has your brilliant artist of a mind painted?” Gakushuu snarks, as he kneads the pillows and stretches, and then settles into his father’s side comfortably.

“You’re going to be propositioned soon,” Gakuhou says miserably, “the teachers”  _ of course,  _ every single one of them were gossips and would love to tattle on Gakushuu’s life, “have told me about the general reaction to your designation and-”

“I don’t want to hear about it,” Gakushuu interrupts. He’d already heard  _ plenty  _ about it.

“Fine,” Gakuhou sniffs, “but don’t come whining to me when Alphas are clawing at your feet.”

\--

“Thanks,” Gakushuu says, “I appreciate it, and you are very nice, but I’m not interested.”

Gakushuu is sure that Gakuhou fucking jinxed his life, because what proceeds is what can be called the worst three weeks of Gakushuu’s existence thus far. He's somehow gotten more propositions from than when he was an Alpha.

“Oh come on,” the senior (from a different high school, how did he even hear about it?) who he’d spoken to for maybe ten minutes at some visiting school fair that Gakushuu hd to go purely for student council appearances purposes, drops the fake smile. 

Gakushuu tries to project imposing and powerful but it seemed that no one took him seriously anymore. He hadn’t changed a single aspect about himself but everybody is acting like he did.

“No thank you,” Gakushuu hisses.

The first time, Gakushuu insulted them until he made the Beta cry. The second time, he just kneed them in the crotch. Gakushuu doesn’t manage to get this far the third time round, and Akabane is on the Alpha before Gakushuu can blink, animosity rolling off him.

The Alpha bolts.

“I didn’t need your help,” Gakushuu says. He crosses his arms.

“I know,” Akabane says. He shifts awkwardly. Gakushuu hasn’t seen head or tail of the guy since three weeks ago when Akabane started avoiding him like the plague, no doubt because of their classroom encounter. Gakushuu’s not sure if he was more angry or embarrassed by being manipulated. 

But Akabane just saved him from getting a demerit for assault. “Thank you,” Gakushuu says graciously.

“It’s whatever,” Akabane mutters. Both of them head down the hallway, and Gakushuu registers how people part way for Akabane the way they used to for him and how some of the Omegas are eyeing Gakushuu with an emotion he identifies as jealousy but he’s not too sure why. But more intriguingly, Alphas give him wide berth.

Or rather, they give Akabane wide berth. 

Gakushuu thinks.

\--

At the school gate, Akabane gives the world's most stilted goodbye and heads off in the other direction, but Gakushuu slides closer to Akabane before he escapes and says “walk me home.”

Akabane turns red. “W-what?”

“Walk me home,” Gakushuu repeats. He nods in a direction, Akabane follows his gaze and scowls at the Alphas unabashedly staring. Gakushuu notes with a sour awe that they avert eye contact. He’s not too bothered by them, but he has something of importance to discuss with Akabane and a ‘reason’ to get Akabane alone is presented well so he’s going to take it. It works, because even back then the trouble Akabane got into was for beating up other bullies, so he'd always had this protective streak in him. 

“Come on,” Akabane says. He gently nudges Gakushuu and leads him away and they walk in the direction to Gakushuu’s house. The silence that falls between them is awkward.

“Hey,” Gakushuu starts, “do you get bothered by omegas a lot?”

“Tch.” Akabane snorts, “I do. You’re really causing me a lot of trouble here, Asano, we used to take the brunt of these things together! Now everyone is bothering me instead of you.” 

“And I suppose it’s starting to be an inconvenience,” Gakushuu says.

“Yeah,” Akabane scoffs. “Not as bad as you probably have it, though. Sucks to be you.”

Gakushuu shrugs. The silence continues. 

“I propose,” Gakushuu says, “a countermeasure. A solution, to both our problems.”

“Go on,” Akabane says.

Gakushuu says, “we date-”

Akabane promptly trips over his own feet and faceplants to the ground. Gakushuu watches, wholly unimpressed, as he clambers up and dusts his pants and then says, “w-what?!”

“We don’t really date, idiot,” Gakushuu snaps. “We just project an illusion of us being in a relationship and people leave us alone.”

“Fake-dating,” Akabane says. He rubs his cheek. “That… doesn’t sound  _ that  _ bad. Why me, though? Wouldn’t you rather ask Sakakibara?”

“He’s my best friend,” Gakushuu wrinkles his nose. “Besides, Ren may have social standing, but your strength outmatches anyone in the school by far and nobody will try anything funny with you.”

“Flattered,” Akabane deadpans. “And since you’re such a pretty Omega that’d rip anyone to shreds, no other Omega will try competing with you for my attention?”

Gakushuu doesn’t blush at being called pretty, at all. “Naturally,” he says. 

Akabane looks considering for a moment.. “Alright then. I accept your proposal,” he says, just as they turn the corner and walk up to the Asano estate. Then suddenly he's awkward again, but that's okay, so is Gakushuu.  ”I'll, um, text you?"

"Sure,” Gakushuu says. Remains composed as he walks up to his house and turns back to see Akabane give him a small wave, then closes the door and silently heads up to his room and screams in his pillow.

_ What the fuck. _

“What the fuck,” he wails. Why did he suggest that? This could only end in disaster.

\--

When Akabane steps into the classroom the next morning, he makes eye contact with Gakushuu and smiles at him, then heads to his seat. Compared to the radio silence and the whole disappearing act he had been pulling for the past month, this is a new and exciting development and Gakushuu is immediately swamped with curiosity.

Akabane looks incredibly amused at the onslaught of attention Gakushuu is getting, and he hides it behind his phone. 

“None of your business,” Gakushuu says. During their next break the Virtuosos approach him, all perplexed about Akabane’s behaviour. 

“What was up with him?” Ren asks. 

“We’re… friends,” Gakushuu says unconvincingly.

“He's been avoiding you and now you guys are buddy-buddy again?” Seo demands.

Koyama and Araki frown in Akabane’s general direction. The latter is sipping strawberry milk and scrolling through his phone, and has some sixth sense of when he’s being discussed about because he looks up and raises an eyebrow. 

Ren and Seo, because they’re confrontational Alpha idiots, narrows their eyes at Akabane. Gakushuu knows that his friends are just looking out for him, but he really wants to hit them.

“What?” Akabane demands from across the classroom, crossing his arms. Everyone in his vicinity sit down on their chairs.

“No,” Gakushuu says. “If anyone starts a fight, I’m going to be  _ pissed _ .”

Surprisingly Akabane backs down first, relaxing his posture. Ren and Seo are thrown off enough that they don’t react when the redhead leaves his seat and saunters up to them.

“Sorry about that, Shuu,” Akabane drawls. Which has mixed connotations in itself, between the two prior to Gakushuu’s Omega status it had been regarded as a teasing nickname to piss Gakushuu off, (and piss Gakushuu off it did). But societal constructs were put in place and Akabane, an Alpha, addressing Gakushuu, an omega, as “Shuu”? 

Well, the very comprehensive text contract they drew out yesterday marked "Shuu" as one of the seven approved nicknames that Akabane is allowed to address Gakushuu as..

“You should be,” Gakushuu says. He glances between the Virtuosos, the unashamed gawping from the peanut gallery, and Akabane. Then he strolls up and brushes against Akabane.

Maybe they should have practiced this beforehand. Proximity is weird, awkward, and Gakushuu kind of wants to crawl into a hole.

Akabane turns a very pleasant shade of pink.  “You want anything from the cafeteria?” he asks, eyes twinkling with mischief, and Gakushuu can tell he’s equally as delighted from the reactions garnered as Gakushuu is. Although he was probably enjoying the look on Seo’s and Ren’s face the most, looking like they just watched Gakushuu eat a live bird in front of them.

“No thank you,” Gakushuu says. 

"Okay, Shuu." Akabane walks out of class. And for the first time in three weeks, nobody says a word, and Gakushuu is at absolute zen.

\--

That night, Gakuhou stabs his dinner with an unnecessary amount of malicious intent against his vegetables. Gakushuu makes it through five minutes of the ten minute lecture about chastity and choice of romantic partners, slams his hands down and says, “I can date whoever I want, and I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can,” Gakuhou says, “but Akabane?  _ Akabane? _ ”

Gakushuu’s not really dating the boy, but he feels offended on his behalf for reasons he cannot fathom why. Probably because of the crush he never really stopped having but refuses to acknowledge. “What’s wrong with Akabane?” He demands.

“He’s insane!” Gakuhou yells.

Gakushuu explodes. “You’re insane!” He doesn’t quite flip the table but it’s a near thing, and stews as he finishes the rest of dinner.

\--

Word spreads around school fast enough and jealousy directed from fellow Omegas increases tenfold but it’s a blissful three days of harassment-free school hours, so Gakushuu thinks it’s worth it. Until he gets cornered in the classroom during a break by an Alpha senior whose name he doesn’t recall, but he remembers rejecting the hell out of that guy.

Did these idiots seriously think Gakushuu was any less stronger than he had been just because of his designation? It takes an embarrassing three seconds to bring the guy to his knees and Gakushuu makes sure to swing the door super hard to hit him in the face as he leaves. 

It’s late afternoon and most students have left campus but the ones remaining jump out of Gakushuu’s way. It’s not even Akabane’s association, Gakushuu can smell the rage coming off from himself, and he storms all the way back to class to retrieve his thingsso he can go home and destroy a punching bag,

and loses his resolve the moment he steps into the classroom and sees Akabane sitting at the back, chewing on a bun. Akabane looks up and his smile drops, and he says, “what’s wrong?”

Gakushuu’s  _ exhausted _ . 

Akabane is up on his feet.  “Shuu?”

“Why can’t people just leave me alone?” Gakushuu laments.

“Oh,” Akabane says. He grips Gakushuu’s shoulders gently, but his voice is hard when he says, “who were they? What happened? I’m going to rip them apart, I’ll-”

“Shut up,” Gakushuu mumbles. He closes the distance and drops his head on Akabane’s shoulders. “There won’t be any ripping apart.”

\--

"Worked well for a bit," Gakushuu sighs. "But some people don't really think we're dating."

"Why not?" Akabane says.

"Scent," Gakushuu says. "I don't smell enough like you."

Akabane crosses his arms. "Many people aren't big into getting physical this early into a relationship."

Gakushuu shrugs. "Of course." Doesn't stop the rumors from flying, though.

"Oh," Akabane says, voice funny.

Gakushuu stares. "What?"

Akabane shakes his head unconvincingly. "Nothing."

The weekend follows and Gakushuu doesn’t leave the house. He recuperates from too much attention and Ren comes over for a few hours on Saturday to do homework with him, and bolts when Gakuhou seems particularly menacing. 

Monday morning comes and Gakushuu has mostly forgotten about Akabane’s weirdness, until the latter arrives in class and makes a beeline for Gakushuu’s seat.

Gakushuu eyes him warily. Akabane shrugs off his blazer and drops it in Gakushuu’s lap and says, “put it on.”

Gakushuu blinks once, twice. Ignores the gaping from the class and says, “you mean your non-school sanctioned blazer?”

“Yes,” Akabane says forcefully, and oh, it’s the scent thing. Gakushuu turns over the fabric in his hands, and he doesn’t quite wear it but he drapes it over his shoulders like a cape. Akabane looks pleased, and honestly a little weird without his classic blazer.

None of the teachers say anything but Gakushuu knows, with 100% certainty, that Gakuhou will hear about this. It does work, in a weird sort of way, he returns the blazer after class but has Akabane’s scent in his nose and following him around for the rest of the day, he gets more stares than usual but nobody comes close. It’s  _ amazing _ .

“Thank you,” Gakushuu tells him as they walk home, now a routine he’s appreciating. Akabane has his blazer folded over his arm and he’s holding it with an odd look and he says, “no problem.”

And then Akabane smiles. This is no good for Gakushuu's heart, he thinks.

\--

**And then of course this goes on until it becomes real dating.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yall discord people already know this but counter proposal:  
> The Introvert/Ambivert/Extrovert dynamic instead of a/b/o. 
> 
> Unrelated but all the ongoing Gakushuu fanfics right now are giving me life. I love every single one of them.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: An assortment of random paragraphs  
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]  
> Characters: Karma, Gakushuu, Gakuhou, Itona, Many minor characters, really  
> Summary: Yep, what it says on the tin. Just a bunch of WIPs that I don't think warrant a chapter of their own, so they're dumped together here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... how did you all like... the previous chapter
> 
> Hey guys, I decided to do something a little different today!  
> Most of these incomplete chapters have been rather long snippets that could very well be one-shot material if I wanted it to be. I don't think I've shared any shorter abandoned WIPs - that can be just a few paragraphs or sentences, that won't warrant a chapter of it themselves.  
> Well I was looking through some of my old documents today and I decided to put some here.

**Hedgehogs**

"Because you're prickly," Karma says, bouncing the little toy in the air to emphasize his point. "See?"

"No," Asano says. 

"Sakakibara," Karma calls, and waves the hedgehog plush under his nose. "Does this look like Asano?"

"Yes," Sakakibara says, not missing a beat, and turns back to his book. Asano makes a offended noise. 

“Here,” Karma says. He’s still holding the toy out. Asano stares at it for a long moment, then gingerly takes the toy from his hands, and squeezes it once. 

“Thanks, I guess,” Asano says.

“Sure,” Karma says. 

Asano pats the hedgehog once on it's puffy little head. It stares at him unblinkingly. He feels a little silly.

\--

**(Karushuu, established relationship) They get into an actual physical fight**

Karma’s face is burning as he walks to his classroom but it’s not like he can turn back time or anything, and everyone in the hallways already saw him and are whispering among themselves, so Karma says “fuck it” and drops the large bouquet of flowers in front of Asano’s shocked face.

“The fuck?” Asano says, startled enough to swear in public.

“Sorry,” Karma mumbles.

Asano's left arm is in a sling. He turns to look at him with a comical expression.

“I’ve been a shitty boyfriend,” Karma says awkwardly, like 3-A isn’t gaping with the rest of the cohort staring through the window, “but,” he takes a deep breath, “I love you.”

Asano’s face is red. His jaw drops.

“Don’t break up with me,” Karma pleads.

Asano blinks once, twice. Then he starts crying.

Karma immediately backpedals. "Sorry, I-"

“I took fucking powerful painkillers this morning and I’m high as a kite,” Asano says in between hiccups, “you can’t come… say that while I’m like this!”

A laugh bubbles in Karma’s throat. Asano is glaring with tears rolling down his cheeks, he’s blushing and his face is puffed up, and Karma thinks, adorable, gorgeous.

“Fuck you,” Asano mumbles. “Get these flowers away from me.”

“We’ll talk about this when you’re better,” Karma says, and gives Asano a kiss on the forehead.

**Gakuhou should probably let Gakushuu miss a day of school instead of sending him to class on drowsy medication**

\--

**ItonaShuu, established** **relationship**

"Remember how we first met?” Gakushuu says.

Of course he remembers. How could Itona forget? “I kicked your face in during pole-toppling.”

“Is it too late for ‘are you an angel’ jokes?” Gakushuu laughs. He’s threading his fingers through Itona’s hair. “White hair, bright eyes, falling from the sky.”

“If you said that to me earlier I would have never talked to you,” Itona says.

“You were so shy,” Gakushuu agrees. 

“Give me a break,” Itona says.

\--

**(Angst) Gakuhou dies, for some reason**

For all the bite and bark and big talk Gakushuu had spat, fighting tooth and nail for recognition and success and the vague idea of “domination”, he really did love his father. He wasn’t too proud to admit that he was torn when he heard the news, seated ramrod straight on the chair listening to the doctor and holding his head high when his father cradled his cheek and told him not to cry.

How the mighty fall from grace, Gakushuu thinks bitterly, once a powerful man losing his school and title and now bedbound, deadline on his life. He still works, typing on his laptop and going “what’s the point of sitting around doing nothing?” and pretending he is interested in reports all day long. Gakushuu lets him believe that, dying man’s whims and all, scribbling into the blanks of his worksheets by his father’s bedside and listening to the heart monitor go beep, beep, beep.

When he finds out the adoption papers go through, well, that’s the first and only time Gakushuu cries. He screams bloody murder and all the insults come pouring out, as Gakuhou sits there in silence, the nurses rush in and Gakushuu yells at them until his voice goes hoarse and kicks his chair until it goes screeching against the opposite wall. Then sobs in his father’s chest, Gakuhou’s fingers running through his hair, and he says “I hate you, I hate you,” and he wishes he means it.

Tamiko kisses him on the forehead. She was the house’s caretaker but his legal guardian now, until Gakushuu turns 20 and the assets go to him. The other two caretakers Husare and Jin are there too, unwilling to leave at this juncture. They’re like his other parents, watching Gakushuu grow up since he was three, but now Gakushuu only wants one.

Gakushuu doesn’t feel any bit of the sixteen years old that he is curled up by his father’s side. They’re back at home and Gakushuu feels like he’s five again, face buried in Gakuhou’s chest as he croons softly about how good Gakushuu is being and how big he’s gotten. Gakuhou says, “I’m sorry,” and Gakushuu says, “ _I’m_ sorry,” and Gakuhou presses his lips to his forehead.

Gakushuu doesn’t cry. 

\--

**Literally just this sentence**

Gakushuu was a straw puppet tied to a throne, and Karma stoked the fire.

**\--**

**(Karushuu, established relationship) Not really a sickfic**

Gakushuu hears rocks pelting off his window. He blinks at the time, it’s early afternoon and school would’ve just let out but who the fuck would bother him by throwing goddamn rocks at his window?

Okay, he can think of one person.

He pads onto his balcony, where Karma is holding a pile of small pebbles and getting ready to throw the next. He brightens up at Gakushuu’s appearance. “Did you just wake up?’ Karma eyes his bedhead, “is that why you missed school today? Sleeping in, without me?”

“Fuck off,” Gakushuu says. “Why did you come here?”

“I missed you,” Karma says, smiling and plain-as-day, and Gakushuu groans, burying his face in his hands. It’s cheesy and sweet and unfair. Who does Karma think he is, coming in and dropping lines like that? It wasn’t even a particularly good line. 

“You okay?” Karma sounds distinctly worried, “are you still sick? Do you have medicine, need me to run and pick anything up?”

“It's just a bit of a fever, I'm fine,” Gakushuu says, cringing internally at how affectionate he sounds. 

“You didn’t go to school,” Karma whines from his backyard.

"If I go to school I’ll just be an exhausted hot mess all day.”

“Hot mess is right,” Karma’s voice carries over, and then there’s a tense silence that radiates embarrassment from the both of them.

\--

**I technically wrote more of this but this was the first snippet I started out with**

"Hey, Bitch-sensei," Nakamura says. "Why are you staring at the board so hard?"

"Is it that confusing?" Takebayashi says. "I mean, we learnt that last year."

"Like I went to _school_ ," Bitch-sensei sniffs, folding her arms across her chest.

**\--**

**I made them fight so much in the early days where I wrote them**

"Congratulations, school president," Karma drawls, "you won the elections by a _landslide._ " 

Asano still has the pleasant, stiff smile on his face. "Thank you, Akabane."

"Hm," says Karma. "School let out hours ago, there's no one left in this building but us, you don't have to pretend to be nice."

Asano scowls at him. "What do you want, Akabane?" 

**Well I mean not that I stopped making them fight, but.**

\--

**The single sentence I cut out from my Kayano-Itona friendship fic**

She’s a bit of a masochist, if Itona’s impression of her is what he remembers. Ryoma tells him that he’s a terrible judge of character, and Kirara smacks him over the head for that.

**\--**

**I published a fic "[Strawberries](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25336594)" for Karushuu Week 2020 (you should read it to have context) and cut out this tiny part also ItoShuu indulgence**

“Ugh,” Karma says. “I thought Kayano was supposed to take you back.”

“I saw her jump Shiota just now,” Asano says, face red. “I wasn’t going to intrude.” 

“That’s no fair!” Itona whines, from where he’s nestled into Asano’s side (Karma has never seen him this snuggly with anyone ever, not even Terasaka.) “You’re supposed to be a lightweight!” 

“I was a lightweight,” Asano says affectionately, and wow, Karma feels like he’s intruding on something here. “I can’t get drunk off my ass every time I have a business function now, can I? It pays to be the sober person in the room.”

“Yeah,” Karma says. “We should get going.”

“Right,” Asano says, and hauls Itona to his feet. “I hope I won’t be intruding.”

Karma wrinkles his nose. He may not want a stranger in his house but he’s not quite mean enough to send him back to Nagisa and Kayano’s. They’ll be doubly pissed at him if he 1. makes their guest go off on his own in the middle of the night and 2. Interrupts their happy fun time.

That sounds incredibly sad. Karma’s a happy, single man.

Something Asano says makes Itona laugh and yeah, no, fuck this guy. 

“Come on, you two lovebirds,” Karma grumbles.

Itona giggles. “No we’re not.”

“Yeah,” Asano giggles back. “You were totally into that Terasaka guy.”

Itona gasps. “How did you know?” He’s such an expressive drunk. “You’re so perceptive, Shuu.”

\--

**More 0 context Karushuu**

Gakuhou, coming back from work, finds his son being utterly smothered by Akabane as they cuddle on the couch, and sighs. Goes to the kitchen to grab a drink and the tiny spray bottle that the housekeeper uses for the herbs and spices growing by the windowsill, comes out and spritzes the two on the couch.

Akabane yelps. Gakushuu makes a hissing noise, and glares.

\--

**Almost a time travel fic**

This is stupid. Gakushuu only has one feasible option left and he’s avoiding it because he’s a coward. But whatever, right? He’s defied the laws of space-time and he’s going to have a hell of a thesis to write when he gets back, he shouldn’t be afraid of meeting his dead mother of over a decade whose now, very much alive. 

Yeah, no, Gakushuu’s terrified.

He’s an Asano, for god’s sake. Scared or not, he should hold his head up with confidence and step into the battle arena without faltering.

Nope. Not a chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kjhghjk Someone remind me to update this more often I have way too many incomplete fics


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working Title: Wordplay
> 
> [General] [No archive warnings apply]
> 
> Characters: Karma, Gakushuu, Gakuhou, Nagisa, Ren, 3-E
> 
> Tags (?): Karushuu of course, Alternate Universe, Post-canon, High school, getting together
> 
> Summary: Excerpts that were almost my other Karushuu fic, "Wordplay".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG hi again everyone! I realize it's been literally forever since I posted and updated and that's because I am in a slum. I have writer's block. School has started. There are No Ideas in my head.  
> But since I haven't posted in so long I figured I'd dig out one of my old wips for this collection. 
> 
> Also, Karushuu Week is coming up! It will be held in the end of January and yes, I plan to participate! If, you know, I can actually think of any ideas by then. Haha.  
> You can follow the Karushuu Week [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/karushuu--week) for updates, and please feel free to hop in and join me for any of the days! :D

If this fic seems very familiar... not to worry, that's because it is. This is essentially how my other Karushuu fic, _[Wordplay](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17783243)_ , could have gone! 

_Wordplay_ is about Karma and Gakushuu working together (and getting together). I wrote this version first, where their relationship went waaay more complicated and they had like 3 concurrent projects instead of 1 ongoing, but halfway through I realized that it went out of control so I did major cuts. It's very thematically different, but you will see similarities between the scenes and writing.

**What's your favorite color?**

**(You might recognize this from chapter 3 of _Wordplay_!)**

**(If you want, you can go and reread chapters 1 and 2 before this.)**

Ever since they’d exchanged numbers, Karma calls Asano every so often when he’s bored, mostly on the weekends. Asano humors him a little, even though sometimes he likes to hang up abruptly. He thinks Asano secretly likes their calls but he’s too uptight and tsundere to admit it. 

“Stay on the line? I’m bored.”

“You have something to do, and so do I.”

“Well, doing stuff is always better with company. That’s why people study in groups, right?” Karma cajoles.

He imagines Asano rolling his eyes. “Fine.”

“Awesome. Hey, what are you doing now?”

“Our biology project.”

“That’s due in a month!”

“Do you always procrastinate your work?” 

“Is that what you think of me, Asano? A lazy, unappreciative genius?”

“Perhaps the first two?”

“Thanks,” Karma says dryly. “What’s your project on?”

“I haven’t decided yet. I’m researching possible topics.”

“Heh, well I’m going to do mine on chromatophores.”

“Oh?” Asano sounds mildly interested.

Karma’s started dropping little tidbits about his time in class 3-E, because Asano keeps bugging him for it, and also because he uses it as bait to get Asano to do petty little nothings. Sometimes he feels ever so generous and tells him something about Koro-sensei or assassination unprompted, and feeling rather lazy, this is one of those times. “Did you know Koro-sensei could change colors? And make circles and crosses on his face?”

“No, I did not. You realize we didn’t even touch on anything about animal coloration during the lessons, right?”

“Well, Kohoki-sensei said we could research any topic related to nature.”

“Hm. Alright.”

“Oh hey, who are you working with? A maximum number of four in a group, right? Which one of the Big Five are you throwing out?” 

“Myself. I’m working on it individually. You?

“Oh, same! I guess we’re both loners.”

“Hm.”

There’s a pause on the line. Karma stares up at his ceiling, fingers drumming on his stomach as he thinks of something to say. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Do you ever stop talking?” 

“How long have you known me?”

Asano sighs over the line. Karma snickers a little, but there’s no reply, so he prompts Asano again. “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“What’s your favorite color?” 

“I don’t have one.”

Karma’s about to laugh, but Asano sounds so serious that he does a double-take. Who the hell doesn’t have a favorite color? “Seriously?” 

“Yes. Having one is meaningless.”

Was this boy for real? “No, it’s not!”

“What are the benefits of liking a color more than the others, then?” 

“Well, um, when you like a color, well okay, no!” Karma wracks his brain for something to say. “It’s about the memories and personal experiences attached to that colour. Like maybe it reminds you of a certain time you had fun, or a person you like, or your favorite food. Not everything needs to be inherently beneficial.”

“Sounds sentimental,” Asano says dryly.

Karma rolls his eyes. “That’s the point.”

“Well, I don’t have a favorite color.”

“We’ll find you one.”

Asano sounds confused. “A favorite color?”

“Yes. You probably already have a favorite color, you just don’t realize it.”

“You’re ridiculous. This is a waste of time.”

“Aww, come on, Asano,” Karma says. He rolls onto his stomach and reaches for his laptop. Colors, he types into the search bar, then feels a little silly.

“How would you even find my favorite color?”

“I’ll figure it out. You have a biology project topic yet?”

“Not since three minutes ago.”

“Hey, want to group up with me?”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, it’d be fun! Two top students, working together. And since we’re doing it on color, we’ll be seeing tons, so we can find your favorite!”

He imagines Asano’s scrunched up face of distaste. “That’s… a terrible idea.”

“Come on! It’d be great,” Karma says. “We’ll ace it, not that you’re worried about that.”

“I’m more concerned about a murder happening during the process.”

“You love me too much to kill me,” Karma jokes. 

“I… really don’t.”

“So? Project partners?”

“What aspect of chromatophores do you even want to look at, anyways?”

“Real life applications seem pretty cool. All the advancements we could make in military technology with such camouflage capabilities, so you can blend into a wall when you need to escape from a crazed assassin bent on getting revenge. Or even just for aesthetics.”

There’s a curious lilt in Asano’s voice. “I’m sensing there’s a story there.” 

“You truly are a genius, Asano.”

“Alright, let’s work together, then. I’ll add you to the shared folder.”

A shared folder? How funny. Karma huffs out a laugh. “Fancy. Do you and the other four have a shared folder too? 

“We do.”

“Nerds.”

“You’re as much of a nerd as we are, regardless of whether you want to admit it. I do need to get some work done. I don’t mind keeping this line open but you have to shut up.”

Karma groans. Why was Asano such a workaholic? “That’s so boring! All I’ll hear is keyboard typing and breathing noises.”

“...do you really want company?”

“Yes! I’m lonely, Asano.”

“Sigh.”

“Well? Be my white knight? Break me out of my tower of solitude!”

“Okay, fine, hang up. I’ll text you my address.”

**(Chapter 4!)**

Gakushuu kind of has an idea on why he invited Akabane over. 

Sitting across his father during dinner and feeling more alone than when he was the only person at home, sometime ago when Akabane offhandedly mentions his parents overseas with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes, and the deathly silence in the car rides to and fro school so unnerving that Gakushuu chooses to walk.

Gakushuu is no stranger to an empty house.

Akabane practically makes home on the bed, sprawling out and burying his face in Gakushuu’s sheets.

“So soft,” Akabane mutters, “I’m stealing your bed.”

“Seems like it,” Gakushuu replies. Akabane says something else that Gakushuu can’t make out but seems like it was directed more towards his pillows than him, so Gakushuu leaves him be and starts typing out the essay he’s working on.

Akabane finally gets to the process of pulling his laptop out of his bag and opening it, lying on his stomach on Gakushuu bed. He starts typing.

Gakushuu watches him. Akabane has a tongue sticking out and hair falling in front of his eyes, which irritates him mildly such that he keeps pushing it back. 

He goes back to his essay. Akabane is uncharacteristically silent but it’s a comfortable quiet, soft typing and turning of book pages as background noise. 

A little bit later, Akabane starts humming. It’s too low for Gakushuu to recognize what it is. 

Gakushuu looks up when the humming stops, to see Akabane lying on his side and staring at Gakushuu with an unrecognizable look in his eyes. 

“What?” Gakushuu asks, eyebrow raised. 

“Nothing,” Akabane mutters, face a little red. Then, “thanks.”

“Hm?”

“Letting me come over.”

“Real quiet back at your house, huh,” Gakushuu comments, side-eyeing Akabane, who stiffens.

“Yeah,” Akabane says awkwardly.

Gakushuu presses several keys. Akabane is still staring at him thoughtfully. Gakushuu decides to test the waters.

“When do your parents come back?”

“I don’t know. Anytime, really. Sometimes they bother to text me but most of the time I just go home from school and they’re already there.”

Gakushuu turns around on his chair. Akabane has his gaze down on his keyboard, his hands wringing together.

He wasn’t just the nonchalant, devil-may-care delinquent everyone made him out to be. Gakushuu knew that for a fact, but having it played out instead of written down was starkly different.

There was no point in bringing up his own father, not to make something like this a competition, nor to show sympathy. Gakushuu himself would hate anyone who tried to pity him, and there was no doubt that Akabane would, too.

“That sucks,” Gakushuu settles on saying.

Akabane laughs, unbiddenly. “It does.” He looks at Gakushuu, mirth dancing in his eyes.

Then he goes back to typing, staring at his computer. Gakushuu turns back to his own work and a companionable silence falls between them.

“Hey,” Akabane starts, a while later, “what do you think of this?”

“Hm?”

“This,” Akabane says. Gakushuu turns around, and Akabane has a screen displaying multiple shades of green. 

“What?” Gakushuu raises an eyebrow.

“Green not your fancy?”

“Is this about my favorite color?” 

“Yep,” Akabane furrows his brow at the palette. “Yeah, I figured green wasn’t your thing. Just wanted to narrow it out.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yep,” Akabane pops the p. “Green’s not really my color either.”

“What’s yours?” Gakushuu asks, slightly curious.

“Yellow,” Akabane decides.

“3-E’s teacher?” Gakushuu guesses.

Karma smiles at him. “Something like that.”

“Hm.” Gakushuu says. He thinks for a bit.

“Want to go out?” Akabane asks.

“Sorry?” Gakushuu looks up, questioningly. 

“For lunch,” he clarifies. 

“Oh,” Gakushuu says, “I think Tamiko cooked for us.”

“Your housekeeper?” Akabane rolls onto his back. “Your dad at work?”

“School management never gets recess breaks, not even on weekends, apparently,” Gakushuu says, flatly. It’s not a funny joke but Akabane snorts.

“What did she make?” Akabane asks, “you asked her to make lunch for me?”

“Coming over at ten in the morning, I assumed you were staying over for at least one meal,” Gakushuu tells him.

“At least one? What if I stay over for two?” Akabane rolls to the middle of the bed, and sprawls out. He closes his eyes.

Gakushuu finds himself watching the rise and fall of Karma’s chest, and the way his eyelashes flutter shut. “If you want to,” he says mildly, “father is usually back for dinner.”

“Yeesh,” Akabane huffs. “Let’s go out for dinner then. You ever been to that western restaurant on fifth street?”

“Across the florist?”

“Yeah, next to those kitschy hipster gift shops,” Akabane says.

“That place is a tourist trap,” Gakushuu says.

“Food’s still good,” Akabane says. “This is too comfortable. I’m going to take a nap.”

“It’s almost lunch,” Gakushuu reminds.

“Lunch can wait,” Akabane yawns. He flips onto his stomach and pillows his head with his arms. Then Gakushuu hears soft breathing. 

He waits a few minutes. “Are you really asleep?” 

“Not with you talking,” comes Akabane’s muffled reply. “You should nap, too.”

“What, with you?” Gakushuu raises an eyebrow.

“Mhm,” Akavane looks up and grins saucily, “I’ve been trying to get into your bed for a whole year. What’s the point without you in it?”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. “Do you ever get bored of this?”

“Of what?” Akabane asks innocently, eyes wide.

“This,” Gakushuu gestures weakly to nothing, “thing.”

“Honey, babe,” Karma starts, “sweetie-”

“Yes, exactly, that,” Gakushuu says, slightly frustrated. “Plenty of girls in Kunugigaoka would gladly go out with you, bad boy reputation or not, actually, maybe because of the bad boy reputation, but-”

“I’m gay as fuck, Asano,” Akabane interrupts hotly, then flushes a deep shade of red.

Gakushuu shuts his mouth. Opens it again. “Oh,” he gets out. Then, “do you actually like me?”

Akabane shrugs. “Maybe. Haven’t decided yet.” He’s stiff and seems uncomfortable.

Gakushuu makes a decision. “Fair enough.” He places Akabane’s laptop on his table and lies down on the bed next to him. 

“What?” Akabane looks genuinely confused, “are you doing?”

“Taking a nap,” Gakushuu says, “were you not suggesting that just now?” 

Akabane’s eyes are wide. “I, I, I’m gay,” he splutters.

Gakushuu stares at him, deadpan. “I’m blonde,” he says back.

At that, Akabane collapses back onto the bed. He bites his lip and frowns, curling up next to Gakushuu. 

Gakushuu stares. Akabane squeezes his eyes shut and takes a long shuddering breath. 

“You okay?” Gakushuu asks softly. 

“No,” Akabane mutters. “Can we cuddle?”

“We’re an inch away from cuddling,” Gakushuu says. He’s not sure if it’s a yes or a no. He’s not sure if he wants to say yes or no. 

Akabane makes that decision for him. He wraps himself around Gakushuu’s arm and shoves his face into his shoulder. 

Gakushuu stares. Then he shifts to get into a more comfortable position and feels Akabane respond in turn, and then they’re pressed together, Akabane’s head on Gakushuu’s chest and their legs tangled.

Gakushuu’s hand hovers above Akabane’s head, hesitantly. Then he pressed down and runs his fingers in his hair and Akabane lets out a satisfied sigh.

“Are you gay?” Akabane asks.

“I’m bisexual,” Gakushuu tells him.

“Nice to know I have a chance if I decide to like you,” Akabane says nonsensically.

“You’re a nuisance,” Gakushuu says automatically.

“And yet I still got you to sleep with me.”

**This is pretty much where the big deviation begins, I think**

Akabane stirs. Gakushuu blinks bearily, sees Akabane on his shoulder, and glances at the clock. Barely an hour has passed. 

“Wake up,” Gakushuu nudges the sleeping boy.

“Ngh,” Akabane says. 

“I’m hungry,” he says, “up.”

“Ngh,” Akabane says, again. He rolls off Gakushuu and continues to doze.

“Wake up,” Gakushuu says. He sits up and pokes Akabane in the side. 

Akabane swats at his hand. 

“Aren’t you hungry?” Gakushuu cajoles, “lunch is waiting.”

Akabane lets out a yawn, revealing his sharp canines, then snuffles back into the sheets. It’s pretty cute, reminds Gakushuu of a sleepy cat. 

“Up,” Gakushuu says. He kicks Akabane off the bed and listens to the satisfying sound of a large thump and a muffled swear. 

Tamiko is puttering around the kitchen. “Saw you boys asleep and didn’t want to disturb,” she says teasingly. Gakushuu flushes.

“Ma’am,” Akabane greets, a little embarrassed.

“I’m reheating lunch,” she says, “any dinner plans?”

“We’re thinking of going out,” Gakushuu tells her.

“Avoiding your father?” Tamiko guesses.

“Why else?” Gakushuu rolls his eyes. Akabane blinks at this exchange. 

“He’s nice,” Tamiko says mildly. She sets plates in front of them. “It’s curry chicken today. I’ve already eaten. There’s rice and bread. Do you need anything else?”

“No, thank you,” Gakushuu says. 

“Drinks?”

“Fine.”

“Not you, our guest. You are?”

“Uh, Karma Akabane.”

“Well, Mr Akabane, is water alright? Would you prefer juice? Soda?”

“You can just call me Karma,” Karma smiles, “water is great.”

Tamiko hums. She gives both Karma and Gakushuu an affectionate pat on the head and saunters out. 

“She’s nice,” Akabane says.

“Mhm,” Gakushuu agrees. He watches Akabane as they eat. It’s a little surreal, sitting next to someone during a meal as opposed to across them.” 

“What about this?” Akabane points.

“What?” 

“The wall,” Akabane says, “the color. That blue?”

“We repaint every once in a while,” Gakushuu tells him.

“What about other blues?” Akabane asks, “the plate?”

Gakushuu looks down at his crockery. “It’s an okay blue,” he supposes.

Akabane looks deep in thought. If anyone knew him enough, and Gakushuu would consider himself one of those people, they would know that a plotting Akabane meant trouble. 

**(And yes, I meant it when I said I accidently wrote myself into a hole and made this WAY more complicated than I could manage)**

Karma dreams of himself and his parents, and then he wakes up with dried tears . 

He doesn’t expect to see a multitude of missed calls and texts. He expects even less that they’re all from Asano.

They’re all apologies, or what Karma thinks is Asano’s interpretation of an apology, at the very least.

> “Are you alright?”
> 
> “Where did you go?”
> 
> “I paid the bill for us.”
> 
> “You left your jacket at mine.” 
> 
> “I’ll wash it and return it Monday.”
> 
> “Akabane?”
> 
> “You better not have done something stupid.”
> 
> “Can you at least text me back so I know you’re alive?”

(Missed Call: Assahole)

(Missed Call: Assahole)

> “Karma Akabane I swear to god, you better text me back.”
> 
> “I told you to charge your phone before you left.”

(Missed Call: Assahole)

> “I shouldn’t have pushed, okay?”
> 
> “If you’re mad at me, can you text Ren?”

(Missed Call: Unknown)

> “I told him to drop you a call. You have his number now.”
> 
> “Akabane? Are you okay?”
> 
> “Please text me back.”

(Missed Call: Assahole)

(Missed Call: Assahole)

(Missed Call: Assahole)

(Missed Call: Blueberry)

> “Nagisa says you’re alright.”
> 
> “I’ll see you monday?”
> 
> “Stay safe.”

Karma rubs his eyes. He stumbles to the bathroom, washes his face, then deliberates giving Nagisa a call, but it’s six in the morning on a Sunday and he’s starving. 

Karma vaguely remembers acidic words thrown across a restaurant table and then he’s getting up from his seat and out the door. He doesn’t quite remember what their fight was about but he hadn’t dreamt of his parents in years, so he could harbor a guess.

The jacket, Karma realizes with a sinking feeling, is one of his favorites. He makes it downstairs to shovel cereal into his mouth then opens a word document on his laptop, and starts typing. 

At eight forty three, Karma calls Nagisa, who picks up on the first ring.

“Hey,” Nagisa says, voice warm, “you feeling alright?”

“No,” Karma rubs a hand over his face. 

“Asano was pretty worried,” Nagisa says, “what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Karma shrugs, even if Nagisa can’t see it. “I didn’t pick up my phone.”

“I know, but if you were in any actual trouble, you would have used the emergency voicemail.”

“Right,” Karma says, “what did Asano say?”

“He told me you two were talking about your parents, and he pushed you too much on something you didn’t want to say, and you yelled ‘You don’t know me at all! Stop pretending you do!’ and ran off. He didn’t say what.”

“My head still kind of hurts,” Karma mutters, “can’t recall much about it. I remember throwing bread at him.”

“That’s kind of funny,” Nagisa laughs quietly. “You want to talk about it?”

“I told him I was gay,” Karma says softly.

There’s a silence on Nagisa’s end on the line that reminds Karma of a knife edge. “That’s not why he got into a fight with you,” Nagisa says, voice low.

Karma feels a chill run up his spine. “No,” he says, “it’s not.”

“He was,” he fidgets, “surprisingly cool with it. We took a nap together.”

Nagisa sounds disbelieving. “Like, on the same bed? You went to his house?”

“Yeah,” Karma says. “He invited me over, it was weird, even though I guess I annoyed him into it. He told me,” he pauses.

“Hm?”

“Uh. It’s nothing.”

“Mhm,” Nagisa sounds unconvinced. “Okay. What next?”

“We ate lunch, did more work, then went out for dinner,” Karma runs a hand through his hair, “that hipster place on fifth with the salads that Kayano likes.”

“Tourist trap,” Nagisa mutters, then, “then?”

“Well,” Karma looks down, “he asked me where they were. My parents, that is, how long they’ve been gone and when they’ll come back. I mean, normal stuff, I was used to. I thought I was used to it. Then he asked me what, well, what I missed most about them. I couldn’t, no I didn’t, I don’t know how to answer that.”

Nagisa makes a comforting noise.

“He said,” Karma continues softly, “you can miss someone that’s still there and I mean, I feel that, I get that, but-”

“Karma,” Nagisa says.

“-he said I didn’t miss them as they were now, I missed who we used to be, and said maybe I tried so hard and did so well because I wanted to be acknowledged and remembered again by them-”

“Karma,” Nagisa says again.

“-well I don’t,” Karma snaps, “I don’t care what they think of me, I don’t. They can go to hell for all I c-care.” 

Karma’s face is wet again. 

“Maybe he wasn’t just talking about you,” Nagisa says gently.

“What are you,” Karma starts. Stops. He groans. “I don’t want to deal with this.”

“You want to avoid your problems in ice cream and pillow forts?” Nagisa asks.

“You mean it?”

“Yep.”

Karma sniffles. “You’re the best.”

“I know,” Nagisa says. “Give me an hour.”

“Strawberry,” Karma says.

“I wasn’t born yesterday,” Nagisa tells him. Karma imagines him rolling his eyes.

\--

Nagisa’s on the phone when Karma opens the door. 

“Yeah,” he’s saying, “yeah, I know.” He looks at Karma and rolls his eyes, and Karma takes a plastic bag from him. 

Nagisa stares judgmentally at Karma, gaze roaming over his body, then says, “in all honesty, he looks like shit.”

“What?” Karma says.

“Yeah, I’m with him now,” Nagisa clips the phone between his ear and shoulder and unties his shoes. “Yes, he’s alive. Just looks like the most hungover middle aged man.”

“Hey!” Karma says, slightly offended. He starts smoothing his hair down. 

There’s a pause over at Nagisa’s line. “No, he doesn’t actually drink.”

“Yes,” Nagisa rolls his eyes, “mhm, okay I’ll remind him. What? No. Jesus.”

Then, “holy shit. Are you serious?”

“Who’s that?” Karma mouths. Nagisa’s grinning, and waves a hand in Karma’s face. 

“Uh huh,” Nagisa sounds gleeful, “okay. Okay. Yes, of course, how long have you known him?”

Karma crosses his arms, and raises his eyebrow.

“Yes, okay, I think he’ll wrestle the phone from me if I talk any longer. Bye.”

The moment the call hangs, Karma does lunge to grab the device. Nagisa flips over the couch and Karma parkours over, and pins boy sans phone onto the carpet.

Karma sees the caller ID. “No,” he says.

Nagisa grins.

“Why the hell are you talking to Asano!” Karma yells. 

“He was worried,” Nagisa shrugs, “he called, not me.”

“How did he get your number?” Karma asks accusingly.

“I gave it to him.” 

“Why?!”

“Last day of school, he asked to keep in touch in case you started a hostile takeover of the school and no one knew how to stop you.”

“That’s stupid,” Karma says, unimpressed.

“Yeah,” Nagisa shrugs, “he told me he thought I was cute like, 2 days later.”

“What?!”

“We went for coffee,” Nagisa shrugs, “he said that a boy tried asking him out so he should try his luck too, but we both agreed it wouldn’t work out.”

“WHAT?!”

“He’s pretty cool, I guess,” Nagisa stares at Karma oddly, “reminds me of you, though. You two would either destroy the world, or rule it.”

“What.”

“That’s a yes to the, I knew he was bisexual,” Nagisa confirms.

“That’s,” Karma sits back, head spinning, “b-but, how, why?”

Nagisa pats his face consolingly. “We should put the ice cream in the fridge or it’d melt. Get off me.”

\--

Karma’s too stunned to stay mad. His jacket is slung over his seat on Monday when he walks into class, and Asano pays him no mind aside from a brief flicker of a gaze. 

During break, Karma approaches him. “You,” he says, darts his eyes left and right to confirm they’re alone, “asked Nagisa out?!”

Asano, to his credit, doesn’t seem phased.  “You know I like boys,” he says, “what’s this about?”

Karma opens his mouth. Closes it.

Asano gets the world’s most annoying smirk on his face. “You’re jealous,” he says.

“I am most definitely not,” Karma hisses. He’s blushing but he refuses to break his gaze from Asano, who takes an incredibly smug sip of his drink and leans back on his chair with his arms crossed.

“Yes you are,” Asano teases, “of who, is the question.”

“I’m not!” Karma glares harder. “I just.” He falls silent, scuffs his shoe.

“Just?” Asano prompts. 

“Shut up,” Karma says. 

Asano stands up. “I don’t like Shiota,” he says, letting his arms fall to his side, “sure, he’s still cute, but so are you.”

Karma blushes. “You think I’m cute?” 

“Half the school thinks you’re cute,” Asano says, like it’s some extremely obvious fact that it’s Karma’s own fault he doesn’t know.

“I don’t care about half the school,” Karma buries his hands into his jacket pockets. He gets where the implication lies and he feels pretty vulnerable.

Asano smiles at him. 

“Well,” Asano says.

“I think you’re cute too,” Karma admits.

“I know that,” Asano grins. It shouldn’t be as charming as it looked.

“Conceited, aren’t you?” Karma says. It comes out more acidic than he meant it to be.

Asano’s eyes soften. “I apologize, for Saturday.” 

Karma tugs his jacket tighter around him. “Whatever.”

“I should have recognized you were uncomfortable,” Asano says, and the sincerity in his voice floods like warm water and Karma shivers. “Let me make it up to you?”

Karma stares, warily. “Are you asking me out?”

“You’re always the one more brash with your advances,” Asano practically sings, and it’s clear how much he’s enjoying the reversal of roles. Karma’s a little distressed. 

“Honey,” Asano practically purrs, eyes glinting with mischief, and Karma feels his knees go a little weak. He’s very much aware that he’s being mocked, but “darling” curling off Asano’s tongue as he stares with half-lidded eyes does unwarranted things to Karma’s lizard brain.

“Stop that!” Karma yelps. He jumps backwards and crashes into another table.

Asano’s grin turns a little sharp. “Meet me after school? I’ll text you the details.”

Karma retreats to the doorway and stares, face red, a little hurt and attracted. He buries his hands in his jacket pockets and bolts.

\--

Gakushuu didn’t think Akabane would come, not after cornering him in class earlier that day. Maybe he went a bit too far.

“You came,” Gakushuu says. 

“Yeah,” Akabane fidgets.

“The patrons and our waiter thought I broke up with you,” Gakushuu tells Akabane. "On Saturday."

“On the first date? Shocker,” Akabane snickers. Gakushuu shoots him a dirty look. 

Akabane heads towards the pastries on display and Gakushuu hovers at his shoulder, peering over. He gets two cakes that look way too sweet to be consumable, and hot chocolate.

Gakushuu gets a latte. He watches Akabane stuff his face and sip happily at his drink, and then blushes when Gakushuu leans forward to wipe a stray crumb off the side of his mouth. 

He can be fucking romantic if he wants to. Gakushuu is going to seduce the hell out of this boy.

You know. Just for fun. 

To prove a point?

“What are you trying to prove, even,” Akabane says, face red. 

“I don’t know,” Gakushuu admits, taking a sip of his coffee. 

“You asked me out just for the sake of it,” Akabane says, sounding sour, “because I brought up Nagisa?”

“I mean, yeah,” Gakushuu says, “besides, you asked me out first.”

“I did not!”

“You called the restaurant a date,” Gakushuu points out.

“That was a joke!” Akabane turns redder. It’s kind of cute. “Do you even like me?” He demands, crossing his arms.

“Maybe,” Gakushuu echoes Akabane’s own words back. 

“Stop being an ass,” Akabane huffs, “I’m trying to be serious here.”

Gakushuu stares. He’s aware he has the upper hand here, Akabane is visibly out of his element and has already admitted two days prior about his possible interest, so the ball is in Gakushuu’s court. He could shoot him down, but some inexplicable part of Gakushuu’s mind or heart actually lowkey likes the boy, for some reason.

Besides, Gakushuu’s pretty sure he feels the same way Akabane does, and that puts them back on the same plane on the playing field. He mourns his slight advantage just a little, but decides to go with the truth. 

“I don’t like you,” Gakushuu says plainly, shelving the strange look that crosses Akabane’s face to mull over later, “but I could.”

“What does that mean?” 

“I don’t currently want to date you, but wanting to in the future isn’t out of the realm of possibility. I could see myself getting into a relationship with you, abielt it being one driven by competition and challenge, it might even be fun.”

“I mean,” Akabane takes a breath, then relaxes into his chair. “Same, I guess. You’re not too bad.”

Gakushuu snorts. “High praise.”

Akabane flashes him a grin. Then, “so what do we do now?”

“What do we have to do?” Gakushuu raises an eyebrow.

“We both indicated a, uh, possible interest in each other,” Akabane says. He actually sounds embarrassed about it. Gakushuu rolls his eyes. 

“It’s possible,” Gakushuu says, “We now have to consider whether to entertain that possibility.”

“Do you want to?” Akabane looks warily at him.

Gakushuu returns the look. “Do you?”

Akabane opens his mouth. Closes it. Thinks. 

“You still have cake,” Gakushuu says. He drinks his latte and watches Akabane stare down at his sweets and then slowly start to eat them. He scrolls through his phone for a bit, then puts it down when he notices Akabane staring.

“What?”

“Yes,” Akabane says in determination, then turns a pretty shade of pink.

“Hm.” Gakushuu looks at him. Akabane is attractive, intelligent, and annoying in ways that might actually be endearing if Gakushuu looked at him in a different light, which, he supposes he would start to, anyways. 

“Yes too, I suppose,” Gakushuu says. Akabane smiles at him and it seems sweeter than the diabetic things he’s eating, and Gakushuu kicks him under the table.

\--

Gakushuu’s in kind of a weird mood, and Gakuhou notices. Of course he notices. 

“It’s nothing,” Gakushuu says.

“It’s something,” Gakuhou narrows his eyes from across the table, “well? Spit it out.”

Gakushuu glares at him. “Since when do you care about what keeps me up at night?”

“If something’s keeping you up at night, then it’s clearly a problem,” Gakuhou counters, “you haven’t been this bothered since last year. It’s disrupting my dinner.”

“What the hell happened last year?”

Gakuhou stares, deadpan. Gakushuu groans. 

His father shoots him increasingly odd looks throughout their shared hour at the dinner table, and Gakushuu retreats to his room and throws himself on the bed. Akabane left his jacket behind again, and Gakushuu kicks it off the bed, before leaning over to pick it up and drape it over a chair. 

His sheets smell a little like both of them, because Akabane had insisted on mandatory cuddling time as an integral part of courtship, whatever that was, and pinned Gakushuu to the bed for the better part of an hour before hearing Gakuhou’s car pull into the driveway, made a face, and jumped out the window.

Gakushuu’s phone buzzes. He picks it up without checking the caller ID, and Ren’s voice floods his head. 

“You and Akabane were being real weird today,” Ren says, “everything alright with you two?”

“Might be potentially dating,” Gakushuu says.

“Might be? Potentially?”

“Yeah,” Gakushuu rolls to his feet and goes to his desk to grab his laptop, then back to the bed. “He’s possibly interested in me, and I’m possibly interested in him, so we decided to see if it would work out.”

“That’s…” Ren sounds skeptical, “weird. Possible interest?”

“I may be interested in him,” Gakushuu explains, “and he may be interested in me, but we don’t know yet. But we both agreed to test that maybe.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Ren says, “do you like him or not?”

“Possibly.”

“Oh my god,” Ren sounds exasperated, “okay, if I’m getting this right, you and him are, uh, trial dating.”

Gakushuu hums in affirmation.

“So, hypothetically, what happens if you two, uh, like the trial?”

Gakushuu snorts. “Download premium.”

The silence over the line is full of judgement. Gakushuu snickers.

“Does Akabane know what a stupid sense of humor you have?” Ren says.

“My sense of humor is the best,” Gakushuu says, “not that you’d understand. You probably pour milk before adding cereal.”

“I don’t know what that means. That’s the fifth time you’ve said that to me, I’m begging you to stop.”

Gakushuu lets a slow smirk spread across his face. “Then beg.”

The long beep that sounds when Ren hangs up is satisfying. Gakushuu scrolls through his phone and opens a text from Akabane, that features a revised list of possible date ideas, which are all stupid. He signed off the email as Possible Babe, with a emoticon heart. 

As ridiculous as it was, Gakushuu finds a smile tugging at his lips.

“You’re stupid,” he texts back. 

A reply comes almost immediately. “Choose one, idiot.”

Gakushuu considers the list. The first is an outing to an art museum, which is the level of class Gakushuu can actually kind of appreciate, although he’s not sure whether Akabane would actually enjoy himself there. He thinks it’s a concession made for him, and it’s kind of sweet.

The second option is staying home and making out. Making out is in all caps, and embedded with ridiculous emojis at the end. Gakushuu actually considers the option for a beat longer, and then decides he doesn’t really want to make out with Akabane. It’s not a bad choice per say, but they’re only trial dating after all. Besides, picking that option would mean jumping the gun and indicating a higher level of interest than Akabane might not reciprocate. Even if he technically suggested it, it might be a bait.

The third option features a water park, and he thinks it’s the option Akabane would like the best. It’s the safest option, per say, because a museum offered many talking points but tended to delve into the human psyche with its content, and Gakushuu knows he and Akabane tended to clash heads with their opposing views. A water park simply provided mindless activity that didn’t need deep conversation to enjoy, and came with the added bonus of seeing Akabane shirtless.

So naturally Gakushuu picks the museum.

“Got it, maybe-baby,” Akabane replies. There’s a winky face emoticon at the end of it.

“Maybe-baby,” Gakushuu murmurs to himself. That’s actually catchy. Should he give Karma a pet name too?

“Akabaka,” he types. Ponders over it for a second, and sends. 

There’s another pause, before a message is sent back, and it simply reads “Shuuey”. It’s less creative, given that it’s just an abbreviation of Gakushuu’s first name, and yet it makes him smile anyways.

He changes Akabane’s contact name to Akabaka.

**And this is as much as I got before realizing hey, I can't write the rest of any of this at all! And I scrapped all of it. It's all in bits and pieces and pretty incoherent even when put together (which is why I decided to give up on it and streamline the plot into something that actually makes sense.)**

**But Nagisa/Gakushuu nation let's go**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure how long that was, but it's buried pretty deep in my WIP folder. Imagine that. I feel like an archeologist kjhgfghj  
> Hope everyone has been doing well! <3 
> 
> Guys Karushuu Week! KARUSHUU WEEK!! :D:D

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Interrogation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25359445) by [gwendee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwendee/pseuds/gwendee)




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